Privacy Policy

SmartSchool.Africa is a school management platform built to help educational institutions across Uganda manage their daily operations. When we refer to "we," "our," or "us" in this policy, we mean SmartSchool.Africa. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle information when you use our website or our platform. By using SmartSchool.Africa, you agree to the practices described in this policy. We are committed to protecting the privacy of everyone who uses our system — including school administrators, teachers, parents, students, and staff members.

We collect different types of information depending on how you use our platform. The information we collect falls into three main categories.

School Information: When your school signs up for SmartSchool.Africa, we collect basic details about your institution. This includes your school name, registration number, physical address, and contact details. We also collect information about the administrators and staff members who will be using the system, such as their names, email addresses, and phone numbers. If you pay for our services, we collect billing information to process your payments.

Student Information: Your school enters student data into the platform to manage academic records. This includes student names, dates of birth, admission details, academic grades, assessment results, attendance records, behavioural notes, fee payment history, and parent or guardian contact information. It is important to understand that this information is managed entirely by your school — we do not enter or control student data.

Technical Information: Like most online platforms, we automatically collect some technical information when you visit our website or use our platform. This includes your IP address, the type of browser and device you are using, your operating system, pages you visit, and how long you spend on them. We also use cookies and similar technologies to improve your experience and understand how the platform is being used.

We use the information we collect for clear and specific purposes. First and most importantly, we use it to provide the services you signed up for — this means running the school management platform and processing your school's data according to your instructions. We also use your contact information to send you important updates about the service, such as security alerts, changes to our policies, and responses to your support requests. Additionally, we analyse how users interact with our platform so we can improve features, fix problems, and develop new tools that make school management easier. We use technical data to monitor for suspicious activity, prevent unauthorised access, and protect all user accounts. Finally, we may need to use or share information if required by law, such as responding to a valid court order or government request.

This is important: your school owns all the data you enter into SmartSchool.Africa. We do not own your student records, financial information, or any other data your school puts into the system. We simply provide the platform and tools to help you manage that information. Think of us as a secure digital filing cabinet — you own everything inside it, and we provide the cabinet and the lock. Your school has full control over who can access your data, what permissions each user has (for example, what a teacher can see versus what a parent can see), and you can export or download your data at any time. If you decide to close your account, you can take all your data with you and request that we permanently delete it from our systems.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your information to anyone. We will never sell your data to advertisers, marketing companies, or any other third party. The only people who can access your school's data are the users you authorise within your institution — administrators, teachers, and other staff members you give permission to. We do work with a small number of trusted service providers who help us deliver our platform, such as the company that hosts our servers, the SMS gateway that sends parent notifications, and the payment processor that handles fees. These providers are bound by strict confidentiality agreements and can only use your data to provide the specific service we have hired them for. We may also disclose information if required by law, such as in response to a court order or government regulation, but we will always notify your school if this happens, unless we are legally prevented from doing so.

We take the security of your data very seriously and use multiple layers of protection. All information sent between your device and our servers is encrypted using SSL/TLS technology — the same security used by banks and online stores. When your data is stored on our servers, it is protected with AES-256 encryption, which is one of the strongest encryption standards available. We use role-based access controls, which means each user can only see what they are authorised to see — a parent cannot see another child's records, and a teacher cannot access financial reports unless given permission. We perform automated daily backups of all data and store these backups securely in a separate location. Our systems undergo regular security audits and vulnerability testing to identify and fix any weaknesses. Our servers are hosted in ISO 27001-certified data centres, which meet international standards for information security management. While we do everything we can to protect your data, no online system can guarantee one hundred percent security. We encourage all users to use strong passwords and to keep their login credentials confidential.

We keep your school's data for as long as your account remains active. If you decide to stop using SmartSchool.Africa and close your account, we will work with you to export all your data first. After your account is closed, we permanently delete all your data from our active systems within ninety days. Backup copies of your data may take up to one hundred and eighty days to be completely removed from our backup storage. If you ever need us to confirm that your data has been deleted, you can contact us and we will provide written confirmation.

SmartSchool.Africa is designed to be used by schools, not directly by children. All student information is entered into the system by teachers and school administrators. We do not collect personal information directly from students, and students do not create their own accounts. Schools are responsible for getting the necessary permission from parents or guardians before entering student information into any school management system, including ours. This is in line with Uganda's Data Protection and Privacy Act and guidelines from the Ministry of Education and Sports. If you are a parent and have concerns about your child's information being in our system, please contact your school directly.

Cookies are small files that websites place on your device to remember things about you. We use cookies for three main purposes. First, we use essential session cookies that keep you logged in as you move from page to page — without these, the platform would not work properly. Second, we use preference cookies that remember your settings, such as your language choice or whether you prefer a light or dark display. Third, we use anonymous analytics cookies that help us understand how many people are using the platform, which pages are most popular, and whether users encounter any errors. These analytics cookies do not identify you personally. You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings at any time, though please note that disabling essential cookies will prevent you from using the platform.

You have rights when it comes to your personal information. You have the right to ask us what information we hold about you and to receive a copy of that information. If any information we hold about you is wrong or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to correct it. You can ask us to delete your information, and we will do so unless we have a legal reason to keep it. You can object to how we process your data or ask us to restrict processing in certain circumstances. If you want to move your data to another service, you have the right to receive it in a commonly used format. To exercise any of these rights, you can contact your school administrator or email us directly at privacy@smartschool.africa. We will respond to your request within thirty days.

To give you the best experience, our platform connects with a few other services. For example, we use SMS gateways to send parent notifications about attendance, fees, and school events. We work with payment processors like Mobile Money services and banks to handle fee payments. We also use email services to send reports and communications. Each of these services has its own privacy policy, and we encourage you to read them. We are not responsible for how these other services handle your data, but we only partner with reputable providers who have strong privacy practices.

From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices or to comply with new laws. When we make significant changes, we will notify school administrators by email and show a notice when you log into the platform. The date at the top of this page will always show when the policy was last updated. By continuing to use SmartSchool.Africa after changes take effect, you accept the updated policy. We encourage you to check this page regularly to stay informed about how we protect your information.