Privacy Policy

1. Who This Policy Applies To

• School staff and administrators who manage a school's account on Betterschool.
• Teachers who use Betterschool to manage classes, attendance, homework, exams, and communication.
• Students and parents/guardians who access Betterschool through school-provided logins.
• Visitors to a school's public directory, admissions, or informational pages hosted on Betterschool.
• General website visitors to betterschool.app.

Schools using Betterschool act as the data controller for student, parent, and staff information they enter into the platform. Betterschool acts as a data processor/service provider on behalf of the school for that data, and as a data controller for information collected directly through our own marketing website, sign-up flows, and support channels.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information provided by schools, staff, and users

Depending on which features a school enables, the following categories of information may be collected and stored:

• Identity & contact information: name, date of birth, gender, photo, address, phone number, email address, parent/guardian contact details, emergency contacts.
• Enrollment & admissions data: application/lead details, visit notes, admission status, class/section/grade, roll number, previous school records.
• Academic records: attendance logs, homework submissions, exam results, grades, report cards, lesson plans, syllabus and routine/timetable data.
• Health & wellbeing records: height and weight tracking, vaccination records, and other health-related entries a school chooses to record.
• Financial information: fee amounts, payment status, receipts, expense records, and other finance/ accounting data entered by school staff. Betterschool does not directly process card payment details; where online payments are supported, they are handled by third-party payment gateways.
• Employment/HR information: staff records, leave requests and approvals, HR management data.
• Communication content: messages sent through the in-app chat system, notifications, survey/feedback responses, meeting notes, and incident reports.
• Activity & engagement records: event registrations, club/CAS participation, awards and certificates, library borrowing records, e-learning activity, bus route/trip assignments and tracking data, student outing/visit-out records, and birthday tracking used for automated wishes.
• School visit & lead data: notes and status logs created by school staff when tracking prospective admissions or school visits.

2.2 Information collected automatically

When you use our websites or applications, we and our service providers may automatically collect:

• Device information (browser type, operating system, device identifiers).
• IP address and approximate location derived from it.
• Pages visited, features used, timestamps, referring/exit pages, and click activity.
• Cookies and similar technologies (see Section 6).
• For the bus tracking feature, real-time or logged location data of school vehicles (not personal device location of students) as configured by the school.

2.3 Information from school directory / admissions websites

Public-facing school directory and admissions pages may collect names, contact details, and messages submitted by prospective parents/guardians through inquiry, lead, or admission forms, for the purpose of following up on that inquiry.

3. How We Use Information

We use collected information to:

• Provide, operate, and maintain the Service's features, including student management, attendance, homework, exams, routines, lesson plans, notifications, chat, events, leave management, fee management and receipts, expense tracking, the full finance system, analytics, HR management, meeting tracking, incident management, surveys, school visit tracking, clubs/CAS, awards, library management, e-learning, bus tracking, health/vaccination tracking, birthday tracking, and outing records.
• Authenticate users and manage accounts and roles (admin, teacher, student, parent).
• Process and respond to admissions leads and inquiries submitted through school directory/admissions pages.
• Generate reports, analytics, and insights for school administrators.
• Send notifications, alerts, and communications related to school activity (e.g., attendance alerts, fee reminders, homework updates).
• Maintain the security, integrity, and proper functioning of the Service, including fraud prevention and troubleshooting.
• Improve and develop the Service, including understanding how features are used.
• Communicate with schools and users about updates, support, and service-related matters.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms.
• Display advertising on our public-facing marketing pages and support the Service through advertising, as described in Section 7.

We do not use student data collected on behalf of schools to serve targeted advertising to students.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Where applicable law requires a legal basis (e.g., GDPR), we and/or the school (as data controller) rely on one or more of the following: performance of a contract with the school, the school's legitimate educational interests, compliance with a legal obligation, and, where applicable, consent obtained by the school from parents/guardians or users.

5. How We Share Information

We do not sell personal information. We may share information with:

• The school itself: staff, teachers, and authorized administrators of the school a student, parent, or staff member is associated with.
• Service providers: hosting providers, cloud storage, SMS/email/push notification providers, payment gateways (for online fee payments), analytics providers, and customer support tools — solely to help us operate the Service.
• Other users, as configured by the school: e.g., a teacher may see homework submissions; a parent may see their own child's attendance and grades; chat messages are visible to intended recipients.
• Advertising and analytics partners: for our public marketing website only, as described in Section 7.
• Legal and safety purposes: where required by law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of Betterschool, schools, or users.
• Business transfers: in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to this policy or a substantially similar one.

6. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember preferences, understand site usage, and support advertising on our public website. You can control cookies through your browser settings; disabling cookies may affect some features of the Service.

7. Advertising (Google AdSense)

Portions of our public website (such as informational and blog pages) may display advertisements served by Google AdSense and other third-party advertising partners.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this and other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visits to our site and/or other sites on the Internet.
• You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings and/or www.aboutads.info/choices.
• We do not display advertising within the logged-in school management dashboard, student/parent portals, or on any page where student personal data is processed.

8. Children's Privacy

Betterschool is provided to schools for use by staff, teachers, students, and parents. Where student information (including that of children under 13 or under the applicable age of digital consent) is collected, it is collected by or on behalf of the school for legitimate educational purposes, and the school is responsible for obtaining any necessary parental consent required under applicable law (such as COPPA, FERPA, or local equivalents) before providing student information to us. Parents/guardians who have questions about their child's data should contact their school directly, or contact us using the details in Section 15 and we will coordinate with the relevant school.

We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children through our public marketing website outside of the school-managed environment described above.

9. Data Retention

We retain information for as long as a school's account is active or as needed to provide the Service, and thereafter for as long as necessary to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements. Schools may request deletion or export of their data, subject to any legal retention requirements. Upon a verified request, we will delete or anonymize personal information unless retention is required by law.

10. Data Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your location and role, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or request deletion of your personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing. Because most student, parent, and staff data is entered and controlled by the school, such requests are generally directed to the relevant school in the first instance. We will assist schools in responding to such requests as required by law and our agreements with them.

12. International Data Transfers

Information may be processed and stored on servers located in countries other than your own. Where required, we take steps intended to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for such transfers.

13. Third-Party Links

Our Service may contain links to third-party websites (e.g., payment gateways, social media, school-provided links). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties, and we encourage you to review their privacy policies.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the "Last updated" date above, and where appropriate, we will provide additional notice to schools.

15. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how your information is handled, please contact us:

• Email: support@betterschool.app
• Phone: +977 9716599406
• Website: betterschool.app/contact