Platform Privacy Policy

1. Scope & Multi-Tenant Architecture Overview

This Platform Privacy Policy governs the collection, processing, and storage of personal and institutional data by Guidasworld Ltd ("Guidasworld", "we", "us", or "our") on the Guidasworld School Management System (GSMS) Cloud Platform, our Odoo-powered web portals, school registration workflows, and central synchronization gateways (collectively, the "Platform").

If you use our native mobile, tablet, desktop, or Android XR application (com.guidasworld.school_app), please also review our dedicated GSMS School App Privacy Policy.

2. Data Controller vs. Data Processor Roles

• The School as Data Controller: When a school provisions a campus instance on our Platform, the school determines the purposes and means of processing student, guardian, and staff records.
• Guidasworld Ltd as Data Processor: Guidasworld Ltd processes tenant academic and administrative records strictly on behalf of the subscribing school in accordance with institutional instructions and applicable data protection laws.
• Account & Billing Administration: For direct SaaS customer accounts (school owners, platform registrants, and billing contacts on /my), Guidasworld Ltd acts as an independent Data Controller.

3. Information We Collect

Depending on your relationship with the Platform, we collect and process the following categories of data:

• School & Owner Registration Data: School name, motto, official contact email/phone, physical address, operating currency, custom domain preferences, and principal/owner identity details submitted via /my/register-school or /demo.
• Portal Authentication & Security Data: Login email, hashed credentials, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA/TOTP) secrets, passkey metadata, session tokens, and IP audit logs.
• Academic & Campus Records (Tenant-Scoped): Student enrollment profiles, class rosters, attendance logs, continuous assessment (SBA) marks, terminal report cards, timetables, and staff records managed by each school.
• Billing & Financial Records: SaaS subscription invoices, payment references, and tenant fee collection receipts. Full payment card numbers are processed directly by PCI-DSS compliant payment gateways and are never stored on our servers.
• Essential Cookies & UI Preferences: Session identifiers (`session_id`), CSRF security tokens, and interface theme preferences (`theme_v2` dark/light mode). We do not use third-party advertising cookies.

4. How We Use Information

We process collected data solely for legitimate educational and operational purposes:

• Provisioning isolated multi-tenant databases, edge server synchronization bridges, and custom school domains.
• Authenticating administrators, teachers, parents, and students across web portals and API gateways.
• Generating academic transcripts, SBA assessment sheets, ID cards, financial statements, and official receipts.
• Delivering transactional notifications (OTP verification codes, password resets, invoice alerts, and school announcements) via our encrypted SMTP and SMS gateways.
• Maintaining platform security, preventing unauthorized access, and fulfilling legal or regulatory obligations.

5. Tenant Data Isolation & Security Measures

We engineer our infrastructure with defense-in-depth safeguards:

• Strict Multi-Tenant Isolation: Every provisioned school operates within an isolated tenant schema/database and dedicated filestore partition, preventing cross-tenant data leakage.
• Encryption in Transit & at Rest: All web portal and API traffic is encrypted via TLS 1.2/1.3 (HTTPS). Sensitive credentials and tokens are cryptographically hashed.
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Granular permission guards restrict access based on verified roles (Superadmin, Headteacher, Accountant, Teacher, Parent, Student).

6. Sub-Processors & Third-Party Integrations

We never sell, rent, or monetize personal or student data. We engage trusted infrastructure sub-processors solely to deliver the Platform:

• Cloudflare, Inc.: DNS management, SSL/TLS certificate orchestration, and DDoS mitigation for school domains.
• Payment Processors: Authorized regional and international payment gateways (including Mobile Money and card processors) for subscription and school fee settlement.
• Messaging & SMTP Relays: Dedicated transactional email and SMS gateways for system alerts and parent communications.

7. Data Retention, Archiving & Backups

• Active Subscriptions: Tenant data is retained for the duration of the school's active service agreement, including historical academic archives required for student transcripts.
• Demo Sandboxes: Interactive demo instances requested via /demo are temporary evaluation environments and are periodically purged.
• Decommissioning & Export: Upon contract termination, school administrators may export their complete database and archive records prior to permanent cryptographic erasure following the agreed grace period.

8. Your Data Protection Rights

Under the Ghana Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), the EU/UK GDPR, and comparable frameworks, individuals have the right to request access, rectification, portability, restriction of processing, or erasure of their personal data.

Parents, guardians, students, and school staff whose data is managed by a subscribing school should direct requests to their school's administration first, or contact our privacy team for assistance.