Privacy Policy
Effective and last updated: 7 August 2026
1. Who we are
FindMySchool is operated by Leovate Ltd, registered in England and Wales (company number 16743779), with its registered office at 71-75 Shelton Street, London, WC2H 9JQ. Leovate Ltd is the controller of personal data processed through findmyschool.uk and the FindMySchool mobile app.
Contact: info@findmyschool.uk.
2. Data we collect
We collect data only when you use the feature to which it relates.
| Category | What this includes |
|---|---|
| Account | User ID, email address, optional full name, authentication provider and password credential in hashed form where email/password sign-in is used |
| Saved content | Saved schools, nurseries, comparisons, alerts and their timestamps |
| School Match | Entered postcode or place, approximate or precise coordinates, phase, distance, sector, boarding and gender preferences, priorities, interests, matched schools and generated explanation data |
| Sensitive School Match preferences | SEN/disability-related preferences and religion or faith preference, only with the explicit consent requested in the Match flow |
| Parent inquiry | Name, email address, optional child's age and phase, optional message, school or nursery profile, delivery/reply state and timestamps |
| School or Nursery Claim and Premium | Claimant name, work email, role, relationship to the school or nursery operator, verification evidence, agency authorisation, manager access, profile content, subscription state and engagement information |
| Purchase and entitlement | Product or plan, Stripe identifiers, payment or entitlement status and transaction timestamps; we do not receive full card details |
| Security and consent evidence | IP address, user agent, authentication events, consent choice, policy/text version, event key and timestamp |
| First-party analytics | Search terms and filters, broad location fields, result counts, school or nursery profile interactions, and pseudonymous session, visitor, or event identifiers where the relevant analytics feature uses them. Nursery inquiry analytics does not receive the inquiry's contact details or message |
| Mobile map SDK information | The installed Google Maps iOS SDK manifest declares non-tracking crash, performance, product-interaction, device-ID and user-ID data, as well as precise location used for app functionality |
We do not ask for a child's name or date of birth in School Match. Free-text fields may contain information that a user chooses to provide; please do not include information that is unnecessary for the request.
Device location is optional. A user can search by postcode or area instead. Near-me coordinates may be used transiently; coordinates and postcode are linked to the account when an authenticated School Match is saved.
3. Why we use data
| Purpose | UK GDPR basis |
|---|---|
| Create and operate accounts, saved content, Match, inquiries, claims and paid features | Contract, Article 6(1)(b) |
| Process SEN/disability-related or faith/religion Match preferences | Explicit consent, Article 9(2)(a), alongside Article 6(1)(b) |
| Protect accounts, prevent fraud and abuse, rate-limit requests and investigate incidents | Legitimate interests, Article 6(1)(f) |
| Maintain accurate, authorised school and nursery profile content | Contract and legitimate interests, Article 6(1)(b) and (f) |
| Keep tax, accounting and legally required transaction records | Legal obligation, Article 6(1)(c) |
| First-party product analytics | Consent where required, Article 6(1)(a), or strictly limited legitimate interests where the processing is necessary and non-cookie based |
| Web advertising or Google Analytics, if enabled | Consent, Article 6(1)(a); these are web services and are not included as native-app tracking SDKs |
Our legitimate interests are service security, fraud prevention, reliable operations and the integrity of school and nursery information. We limit access, data fields and retention periods to keep that processing proportionate.
4. Who receives data
We do not sell personal data.
| Recipient | Service |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Authentication, database and storage |
| Vercel | Application hosting and request delivery |
| Resend | Account, security, inquiry and service email |
| Upstash | Short-lived rate limiting and selected caches/counters |
| Stripe | Web payment processing and fraud/regulatory functions |
| Google sign-in, Maps Platform, and web Analytics/AdSense only where enabled and consented | |
| Meta | Instagram connection and public-media display where a profile operator enables that integration |
| postcodes.io | Postcode resolution where that service is used |
| Verified school or nursery recipient | The parent inquiry the user asks us to deliver |
Stripe, Google, and Meta may act as independent controllers for parts of their own fraud, regulatory, authentication, or platform processing. A school or nursery operator receiving an inquiry becomes an independent controller for its copy of the inquiry and is responsible for its subsequent handling and replies.
5. International transfers
Our primary application data is stored in the United Kingdom. Some processors may process data in other countries. Where UK personal data is transferred without an adequacy regulation, we use an approved safeguard such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Contact us for information about the safeguard used for a particular processor.
6. Retention and deletion
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Active account and saved content | While active; the first-party activity clock deletes an account after 60 months without authenticated activity |
| User-requested deletion | Access is blocked when scheduled; live account data is permanently purged within 30 days unless a legal exception applies |
| School Match created from 10 July 2026 | 12 months, unless the user deletes it or the account sooner |
| Pre-enforcement sensitive Match records | Kept with a restricted legacy classification; on return, the account holder chooses whether to retain or redact historical SEN/faith fields; account deletion still applies |
| Match request retry payload | 30 days after completion; abandoned processing records after a short recovery window |
| Expired Match share | Public access ends at expiry; the daily job marks it revoked and disables sensitive sharing |
| Parent inquiry, including optional message | 24 months |
| Raw first-party analytics | 90 days for post-10 July 2026 raw events; aggregate statistics may be kept where they no longer identify a person |
| Authentication audit log | 24 months for post-10 July 2026 events |
| Pre-10 July 2026 incident/security evidence | Restricted and retained only for the documented incident/legal review; deleted or anonymised when that purpose or a legal hold ends |
| Operational authentication session | Until expiry, revocation or deletion under the authentication service's session lifecycle; we do not create a separate 12-month session-history ledger |
| Ordinary consent evidence | While linked to an active account, then 24 months after account-deletion pseudonymisation; anonymous cookie choices use a 24-month window |
| Purchase consent/transaction evidence | Up to seven years; purchase records are kept for six years from the end of the relevant accounting year |
| School or Nursery Claim verification and manager records | While the claim or manager access is active and 12 months after it ends, unless evidence is required for an ongoing dispute or legal obligation |
| Claimed profile content and uploaded media | While used on the profile. Authorised managers can remove it through profile controls. Account deletion removes the departing user's attribution and access, but provider content may remain where another authorised operator or the public profile still uses it, subject to the encrypted-backup period below |
| Instagram connection tokens and cached media | Until the profile operator disconnects, the token expires, the connecting manager loses authority, or the connecting account is deleted; short-lived cached media expires separately |
| Encrypted backup | Up to 30 days until overwritten; backup data is beyond ordinary use and a restored system must re-run the deletion backlog before normal access |
Deletion from a live system does not necessarily remove legally required, strictly limited transaction or security evidence at the same moment. We retain only the fields needed for that separate purpose and delete them when its period ends. Pseudonymous data remains personal data where it can still be linked.
7. Special-category data and consent
SEN/disability-related information and a specific religion, faith or non-religious preference may be special-category data. We request explicit consent before processing those answers. A user can withdraw consent and redact the related historical fields through reconsent controls, delete an individual Match, delete Match history in bulk, request help at info@findmyschool.uk, or delete the account. Withdrawal does not make earlier processing unlawful.
8. Children
FindMySchool is designed for parents, carers and other adults choosing schools or nurseries, not for children to create accounts. Account registration is restricted to people aged 18 or over. An adult entering information about a child confirms that they have authority to do so and should provide only what the feature needs.
9. Your rights
Depending on the processing and its legal basis, you may have rights to access, rectify, erase, restrict or receive your data, object to processing, and withdraw consent. You may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Email info@findmyschool.uk to exercise a right. We normally respond within one month. Account deletion is also available in Profile → Privacy in the app and on the website.
10. Automated recommendations
School Match produces suggestions from the preferences supplied. It does not make a decision with legal or similarly significant effect. Parents remain responsible for deciding which schools to consider or apply to.
11. Security
We use access controls, row-level database policies, encryption in transit, restricted service credentials, audit evidence, rate limiting and scheduled retention jobs. No internet service can guarantee absolute security.
12. Cookies and mobile tracking
The website's cookie details are in the Cookie Policy. The native app's current build contains no advertising or cross-app tracking SDK and does not request App Tracking Transparency permission. Google Maps' declared non-tracking diagnostics and analytics remain disclosed in sections 2 and 4.
13. Changes and contact
We review this notice when the app, processors or retention rules change. For a material change, we update the version and request reconsent on the next account return where appropriate.
Questions or complaints: info@findmyschool.uk.
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 Website: ico.org.uk