School Chalen

At School Chalen (operated by School Chalen Multi-Tenant Cloud Platform), we prioritize the privacy, security, and integrity of all student, parent, educator, and institutional data. This Privacy Policy details the information we collect, the precise reasons device permissions are required, our strict data safety practices, and your rights to manage or permanently delete your account and personal data.

1. Purpose of the Platform

School Chalen is a multi-tenant enterprise School Management and Communication system designed for educational institutions. Primary features include:

• Real-time school transit and bus route tracking for child commuter safety.
• Automated teacher campus check-in and student attendance tracking.
• Instant school notice broadcasts, homework assignments, and academic schedules.
• Online educational fee collection via encrypted, certified payment gateways.
• Direct parent-teacher educational consultations via peer-to-peer WebRTC voice/video.
• AI-assisted educational doubt solving (School Chalen Buddy).

2. Location Data & Background GPS Tracking (Prominent Disclosure)

Our location collection adheres to the principle of least privilege according to user role:

1. Authorized Bus Drivers (Background Location + Foreground Service): When a driver explicitly starts a school bus trip, School Chalen runs an Android Foreground Service (FOREGROUND_SERVICE_LOCATION) with a persistent status notification ("🚌 School Bus Live Tracking Active"). This transmits live GPS coordinates to parents and school dispatch even when the driver's phone is locked or navigation runs in another app. GPS streaming terminates immediately when the driver taps "End Trip".
2. Teachers & Faculty (Campus Geofencing): Location is verified solely within designated school campus geographic boundaries during official shift hours to automate attendance. Once verified or outside operating hours, location monitoring is completely deactivated.
3. Students & Parents (NO Background Location): Students and parents are never tracked in the background. The app only accesses device location in the foreground if a parent voluntarily requests to calculate real-time walking distance or ETA to the approaching school bus stop on the live interactive map.

Zero Commercial Sharing: Location data is strictly operational. We do not sell, rent, license, or share user location data with third-party advertisers or data brokers under any circumstances.

3. Device Permissions Declared & Justifications

Permission	Type	Operational Purpose
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION	GPS Location	Accurate bus navigation, stop distance calculations, and school campus verification.
FOREGROUND_SERVICE_LOCATION FOREGROUND_SERVICE	Foreground Service Location	Enables continuous live bus GPS streaming and campus geofencing with an ongoing notification while driver or teacher is on an active trip/shift.
POST_NOTIFICATIONS	System Alerts	Delivers emergency school announcements, bus arrival alerts, attendance status, and homework circulars.
RECORD_AUDIO FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MICROPHONE	Microphone	Used for direct parent-teacher WebRTC voice calls and AI voice-to-action queries. Streams are peer-to-peer and never recorded.
CAMERA	Media Capture	Allows scanning payment QR codes, homework submission photos, and institutional notice attachments.
FOREGROUND_SERVICE_PHONE_CALL USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT	Voice Calling UI	Displays full-screen incoming voice call screen for urgent teacher-parent educational consultations.

4. Children’s Privacy (COPPA & DPDP Act Compliance)

School Chalen is an educational enterprise platform provisioned exclusively by accredited schools. In compliance with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), FERPA, and India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP 2023):

• Student accounts are created and managed strictly under the authorization and direction of the student’s educational institution.
• We do not collect personal data directly from children without institutional/parental authorization.
• Student data is never used for behavioral targeting, commercial advertising, or predictive marketing profiles.
• Parents and legal guardians may review, correct, or request deletion of their child’s records at any time through their school administrator or our deletion portal.

5. Financial Information & Payment Processing

School Chalen partners with certified, PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant payment gateways (Razorpay) for school fee collection. School Chalen never collects, stores, or processes credit/debit card numbers, CVVs, net banking credentials, or UPI PINs. All payment transactions take place entirely within the encrypted gateway interface.

6. Data Security & Encryption Standards

We enforce bank-grade security protocols across our infrastructure:

• Encryption in Transit: All communications between the mobile application, web portal, and cloud servers use TLS 1.3 encryption with modern cipher suites.
• Encryption at Rest: Database records, authentication tokens, and uploaded media are stored with AES-256 bit encryption.
• Tenant Isolation: School data is cryptographically segmented by School Tenant ID, ensuring one institution can never view or access another institution’s records.

7. Third-Party Service Providers (Sub-processors)

We work with trusted industry providers strictly to provide infrastructure, security, and communication:

• Google Firebase / Google Cloud: Authentication, cloud database (Firestore/RTDB), push notifications (FCM), and crash analytics.
• Razorpay: Encrypted payment gateway processing.
• OpenStreetMap: Map tiles and route visualization.

8. Data Retention & Permanent Account Deletion

We retain operational data only as long as an institution maintains an active subscription or as mandated by legal and regulatory frameworks.

What Happens Upon Deletion:

• Immediate Purge: User profile data, login credentials, device push tokens, and uploaded media are permanently expunged within 2–3 business days.
• Statutory Ledger Exception: Official financial fee payment receipts and tax vouchers are archived strictly as required by applicable national accounting and education regulatory statutes.

9. Contact Our Data Protection Officer

For questions, privacy grievances, or regulatory inquiries, contact our dedicated Data Protection Officer:

• Data Protection Officer: Ashutosh Rajoriya
• Email: ashutoshrajoriya7@gmail.com
• Official Website: https://schoolchalen.com
• Organization: School Chalen Educational Technologies