This privacy policy covers the SchoolVane: School App mobile app for Android and iOS, the SchoolVane website, web app and portals, provided by EDINBOOK LIMITED. Aligned with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA), the NDPC General Application and Implementation Directive 2025 (GAID) and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). Version 2026-10-24.1 · effective 24 October 2026.
In short
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EDINBOOK LIMITED (“SchoolVane”, “we”, “us”) is the developer of the SchoolVane: School App mobile app, published on Google Play (package com.schoolvane.app) and the App Store, and operates the SchoolVane platform: the website at schoolvane.com, the school web app and the parent and student portal, the mobile app, and the offline CBT desktop app and exam-centre server. Our address: Plot 2176A Osi-Efa Cresent, Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos State, Nigeria.
When the school is in charge (data controller). Each school or school group using SchoolVane (the “Institution”) is the data controller for the records it keeps about its students, applicants, parents and guardians, staff, visitors, PTA members and alumni. We are its data processor: we process those records only on the Institution's documented instructions, under our agreement with it, and for no purpose of our own. Questions and requests about those records go to the school first.
When we are in charge. We are the data controller for: our website and the enquiries made on it (demo and trial requests, contact forms); parent app accounts used with more than one school (the sign-in itself — each school remains in charge of its own records about the family); the billing and subscription details of the schools we serve; our referral (marketer) programme; the security of the platform (sign-in, audit and abuse-prevention records); and the support conversations you have with us.
Because the platform holds children's data and health information, Institutions should complete a Data Protection Impact Assessment before enabling proctoring, transport tracking or the health modules.
Each school chooses which modules it uses, so the platform holds only what that school's modules record.
The SchoolVane app is published on the App Store (iPhone, iPad) and Google Play (Android). Install it only from those stores. It talks only to the SchoolVane service. It asks for a permission only when you use the feature that needs it, and you can refuse or later withdraw it in your phone's settings; the rest of the app keeps working.
| Permission | Who and why | When |
|---|---|---|
| Notifications | Everyone: school notices, results, fees, bus updates and messages. A notification token from Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (and Apple Push Notification service on iPhone) is stored against your account. | From sign-in until you sign out, delete your account or turn notifications off |
| Location (precise, or approximate if you choose that when your phone asks) | Bus drivers during a trip, so parents of children on that route and the school can see the bus live. Parents who choose “use my location” to set a pickup point, which the school's transport team and the driver on that route can see. | Only while the app is open and in use: the app explains what is shared, and with whom, before your phone asks. A trip stops sending positions when the driver ends it or leaves the app. The app never asks for background (“Always”) location. |
| Camera | Bus drivers scanning a pupil's QR bus pass. The code is read on the phone (Google ML Kit on Android, Apple's Vision on iPhone); only the code that is read is sent to the school, and no picture is stored or sent anywhere. | Only while scanning |
| Photos and files | Students attaching work to a homework submission; parents attaching a letter to an absence note. Only the file you pick is uploaded. | Only when you pick a file |
The app also keeps a random identifier for each installation, which binds your sign-in to that phone, and stores your sign-in in the phone's secure storage (Keychain on iPhone, Keystore on Android). When you type an address, your phone's built-in map service (Apple or Google) converts it into map coordinates. Fees are paid on the payment gateway's page in your browser, never inside the app. The app contains no advertising or crash-reporting software and no analytics of how you use it, and does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
Google ML Kit (Android only). The QR scanner in the Android app is Google's ML Kit, which reads the code on the phone itself. Like Google's other software kits, it sends Google technical diagnostics about the scanner — the phone's make, model and Android version, the app's name and version, a random identifier for the installation, timings, settings and error codes — which Google uses to maintain and improve ML Kit and does not pass to anyone else. No picture, code, location or personal details are sent. It only runs when a bus driver opens the scanner. The iPhone app uses Apple's built-in scanner, which sends nothing.
Reporting and blocking. Anything in the app that breaks the community rules can be reported without leaving the app: Report on an announcement, on a teacher's message, or under an answer from the Help assistant, and Account → Report a problem or a person. A parent can block a teacher in parent–teacher messages, and unblock them, from the same conversation. Before you first use the app you are asked to agree to the terms of use.
We do not sell personal data, use it for advertising or marketing profiles, or use school data to train AI models. We only email you about our own services when you have asked us to, for example after requesting a demo or a trial.
The NDPA (section 25) allows processing only on a lawful basis: consent, a contract, a legal obligation, someone's vital interests, a task in the public interest, or legitimate interests that do not override your rights.
SchoolVane is used by schools, including primary schools, so it holds information about children. Children's records are created and managed by their school. Children cannot open an account themselves: student sign-ins are issued by the school, and parent accounts are for adults. Children's information is never shown publicly; there is no advertising, public profile or social feature, and no profiling for marketing.
Where consent is the basis for processing a child's data, the NDPA (section 31) requires the consent of a parent or legal guardian, and the school obtains it. Parents exercise their child's rights through the school (section 12). Where a country's law sets different rules for children, the school applies them.
None of these features makes a decision with legal or similarly significant effects about anyone without a person deciding, in line with NDPA section 37. You may ask your school for a person to review any decision and to explain it.
Inside a school, people see only what their role and permissions allow; parents see their own children's records that the school releases to them; every school's data is kept separate from every other school's. Outside the school, information goes only to the service providers below, and only when the feature that needs them is in use. Providers that act for us or for the school (processors) may use the data only to provide their service. Payment gateways and messaging networks also handle some data under their own privacy policies as independent controllers.
| Recipient | What and why | When |
|---|---|---|
| Our hosting provider | All platform data, to store and serve it, including encrypted backups | Always |
| Payment gateways: Paystack, Flutterwave, Interswitch, Stripe | Payer name and email, amount and reference, to take a payment | When someone pays through the gateway the school (or, for subscriptions, we) chose |
| Email service (the school's or our mail provider) | Recipient address and message, to deliver email | When email is sent |
| SMS gateway chosen by the school | Phone number and message, to deliver SMS | Only if the school enables SMS |
| WhatsApp Business (Meta Platforms) | Phone number and message, to deliver WhatsApp messages | Only if the school enables WhatsApp |
| Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification service | Device token and the notification title and text, to deliver push notifications | When notifications are on |
| Google (ML Kit, the QR scanner in the Android app) | Technical diagnostics about the scanner: phone make, model and Android version, app name and version, a random installation identifier, timings, settings and error codes (section 3). No picture, code or personal details. | When a bus driver uses the QR scanner on Android |
| Map services: OpenStreetMap Nominatim (default), Google Maps or Mapbox | The address of a bus stop or pickup point, to find it on a map | When the school's transport team looks up an address |
| AI provider chosen by the school (Anthropic or a compatible service) | Proctoring images; counts and averages that do not name anyone; or the subject, level, topics, instructions and existing question texts for the question generator (section 7) | Only if the school enables AI features |
| Anthropic (Claude), for the Help assistant and the question generator | Questions typed into Help, earlier questions and answers in the same conversation, the matching guide sections and the asker's role, to write the answer; for a school without its own AI provider, what the question generator sends (section 7) | Only while we have these AI features switched on |
| Google Classroom, Microsoft 365 and Zoom | The school's own account credentials, to check the connection works. No student or staff records are sent to them. | Only if the school connects them |
| The school's single sign-on provider | Your name and email address, received from the provider when you sign in with it | Only if the school enables single sign-on |
| The school's GPS trackers and RFID or QR readers | Vehicle positions and boarding events sent to the platform | Only if the school installs them |
| Anyone checking a certificate the school issued | The school, the certificate's title and number, the holder's name, the date of issue and whether it is still valid — shown on the public certificate check when the QR code is scanned, or when the school code, number and holder's surname are typed in. Nothing else from the student's record. | Only for certificates the school issues |
We may also disclose information where the law requires it (for example to a court or regulator, checking that the request is lawful), to protect someone's life or safety, or to professional advisers bound by confidentiality. If our business were transferred, the new owner would be bound by this policy. Exchange rates for prices are fetched from a public service without any personal data.
Some of the providers above (including Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Zoom, Stripe, Mapbox and AI providers such as Anthropic) process data outside Nigeria, for example in the United States or the European Union. Under NDPA sections 41–43 we, and the school for the providers it enables, transfer personal data abroad only where the destination ensures an adequate level of protection, an approved safeguard such as binding contractual clauses is in place, or another basis in the Act applies. Optional providers are switched on by the school, which is responsible for checking a transfer basis before enabling them.
Information is kept only as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for and any period the law requires. Where a school sets its own period, the nightly retention job applies it.
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Proctoring images | 90 days by default, or the period the school sets (from 1 day). Deleted nightly after that, image files included. |
| Vehicle GPS positions | 120 days by default (about a school term), or the period the school sets. Deleted nightly after that. |
| Boarding and drop-off events | Kept with the school's transport and attendance records. |
| Files attached to absence notes | 365 days by default, or the period the school sets (from 30 days); the file is then deleted nightly. The note itself (dates, reason and decision) stays with the attendance record. |
| One-day pickup passes and removed collectors | Deleted 90 days by default (or the period the school sets, from 7 days) after a pass is used or expires, or after a person is declined or removed from a child's list. The gate log of who collected a child stays with the school's safeguarding records. |
| Certificates | Kept so the holder, and anyone they show it to, can still check it after the student leaves; a withdrawn certificate shows as withdrawn. |
| Answer keys on offline exam devices | Purged 24 hours after the exam window closes. |
| Notification and delivery history | Moved out of the live system into restricted, compressed archive storage after 12 months. |
| Help conversations and reports | Deleted 12 months after the last message (unless the school is under legal hold), or sooner when the account is deleted or erased. |
| Blocks in parent–teacher messages | Until the parent unblocks the teacher, or deletes their account. |
| Generated questions awaiting review | Deleted 180 days after they were deleted or returned; approved questions stay in the school's question bank like any other teaching material. |
| PTA records | Volunteers' emergency contacts 30 days after the shift; private parent–teacher messages 365 days after the consultation; the text of a concern 3 years after the case closes; answers to a closed survey after 3 years — unless the PTA sets other periods in its rules. PTA financial and governance records (payments, ledgers, minutes, election results) are kept as long as the school must account for them. |
| Academic, attendance, behaviour, boarding, finance, payroll, staff attendance and health records | While the school's subscription is active and for any statutory period the school must observe. The school decides. |
| Audit and security logs | For the life of the school's account. They are sealed so that tampering can be detected, which means they cannot be edited or partly deleted. |
| Verification codes and password-reset links | Expire after a short time and cannot be reused. |
| Notification tokens | Deleted when you sign out, delete your account, or the notification service reports the token is no longer valid. |
| Parent app accounts | Deleted at once when the parent deletes the account (section 12). |
| Trial schools | Disabled when the trial ends and permanently deleted 30 days later unless the school subscribes. |
| Demo and trial requests, website enquiries | Deleted 24 months after they arrive unless they became a school, or sooner on request. |
| Referral marketers | While you take part, then for as long as accounting and tax law requires for commission records. |
| School billing records | As long as accounting and tax law requires. |
When a school leaves, its data is exported to it on request and then deleted from the live systems; copies in encrypted backups are overwritten as the backups rotate.
Under the NDPA (sections 34–38) you have the right to be told how your data is used; to get a copy of it; to have it corrected; to have it erased; to restrict or object to its use (including, at any time, to direct marketing); to receive it in a portable format; to withdraw consent where processing relies on consent; and not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing. You can also complain to the regulator (section 17).
You can delete your account in the SchoolVane: School App mobile app (Account → Delete account) or, without the app, at account deletion. You confirm with your own password. Parent accounts are deleted straight away: the sign-in, name and contact details on the account are removed, every app session is signed out and notifications stop. Staff and student accounts are issued by the school, so the request is sent to it to action as an erasure request. In both cases the academic, attendance and financial records the school must keep by law, the guardian contact details it entered, and security audit records are kept as described in section 10.
If you created two parent accounts, you can merge one into the other in the app (Account → Merge another parent account) or on the web portal. You prove the second account is yours with its password and a code we email to it. Its children, PTA records and message history move to the account you keep; its sign-in stops working and its email address is released. We email both addresses, and each school involved keeps a record of the merge in its audit trail.
schoolvane_sess) — keeps you signed in and protects forms against forgery. Strictly necessary; it ends when you sign out or the session expires.sv_currency) — set only when you choose a currency on our public pages, and kept for 30 days.We use no advertising or analytics cookies and no third-party trackers.
If we become aware of a breach affecting a school's data, we notify that school without undue delay and support its investigation, so that it can meet its own duties to inform the Nigeria Data Protection Commission and the people affected. For information we control, we notify the Commission within 72 hours where NDPA section 40 requires it, and tell the people affected directly where the breach is likely to put their rights at high risk.
SchoolVane serves schools in several countries. Where a school is outside Nigeria, its own country's data protection law also applies — for example the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) in Ghana, the Data Protection Act, 2019 in Kenya, the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 in South Africa, or the UK or EU GDPR. The school, as data controller, meets that law; the protections and rights in this policy apply wherever you are, and you may also complain to your own country's data protection authority.
Material changes increase the version number above and are notified to schools before they take effect. The version and effective date let each school record which version its users accepted.
EDINBOOK LIMITED, developer of the SchoolVane: School App mobile app. Privacy questions and requests: hello@schoolvane.com. General support: hello@schoolvane.com. Post: EDINBOOK LIMITED, Plot 2176A Osi-Efa Cresent, Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos State, Nigeria.
If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (ndpc.gov.ng) or, outside Nigeria, to your own country's data protection authority.