Privacy — in plain English

What we collect, and why

• Family account: your email and a password (stored only as a salted cryptographic hash — we cannot see it). Optionally a family name.
• Each learner: a first name or nickname, year level, and — if you choose — state, area type and interests. The name is used to greet them; the year level sets which curriculum year opens by default; the state flavours the “why are we learning this?” note on English, maths, science and HASS units. Interests only mark which choice tasks play to them — they never change the level, the pathway or what is expected of your child. Area type is shown back on the profile and is not yet used for anything else. None are required.
• Learning records: lesson progress and self-assessments; quick-check results, including which option your child chose and the specific misconception a wrong answer names — we keep that label even after a later right answer, because one right answer is not evidence an idea has gone; warm-up and second-attempt results with their times; the spaced-review schedule, which follows a learner between devices so the ladder does not restart; Learning Discovery answers; and diagnostic results, kept as a dated history rather than one overwritten result. These exist so your child's learning is tailored and the record of it is kept for you.
• A check-in while it's running: when your child is part-way through a Progressive Diagnostic, which questions they've answered is held on our server so the marking happens there rather than in the browser. It is deleted the moment the check-in finishes — only the result is kept, alongside the other learning records above.
• Portfolio — your child's work: if you choose to keep it, a photo, a few written lines or a link for a task your child has done. You add each piece yourself from the lesson, nothing is ever taken automatically, and each one is stored against the statement the task was written to evidence so it still reads as evidence when your registrar asks. A photo of your child's work may of course include your child. These are learning records: you can delete any single piece from the Parent Hub, and they all go with the learner or the account.
• Support requests: what you write when asking to be connected with a teacher, counsellor or psychologist. This can include sensitive information — share only what you're comfortable sharing; it is used solely to match and brief the right professional.
• Clinical notes: if you have a consultation, the psychologist, counsellor or teacher writes a note about it. That is a health record, so we keep it apart from everything else here, under its own rule — see deletion below. The only date of birth we ever hold is on one of these notes, and it is collected only to work out how long the note must be kept.
• Assessment records: if you choose an assessment, we hold what it produces — the answers your child gave, the scored instrument, any screener or adaptive-behaviour questionnaires you or others complete, and the written report. These are health records under the same rule as clinical notes, and a date of birth is recorded for the same reason. Where you ask us to send a report on — to a school, a paediatrician, an NDIS planner — it goes only to the people you name, and we keep a record of what was sent where.

What we deliberately don't do

• No third-party advertising or ad trackers, on any page.
• No selling or renting of your data — ever, to anyone, at any price. Nothing is shared without your written instruction. The only thing that ever leaves us is a report you have asked us to send, to the people you name.
• No requirement for a child's full name, photo, or date of birth to learn with us — a first name or nickname is enough. A photo is yours to add, never ours to ask for: we hold one only where you have chosen to keep a piece of your child's work in their portfolio, and you can delete it in a click. The one thing we do require is on a consultation, where the practitioner records a date of birth on their note, only to work out how long that note must be kept.
• No contact with children — all communication goes to the parent/guardian account holder.

Where your data lives

Signed out, everything stays in your own browser on your own device. Signed in, learner records sync to our database hosted with Railway, our infrastructure provider — which may process data outside Australia. We are working toward Australian data residency and will update this policy when that lands. Traffic is encrypted (HTTPS) in transit.

When you ask for a consultation

What you write in a support request stays in ParkSyde. Our team is alerted by email that a family is waiting and which kind of professional you asked for — but your message is never in that email. Requests can hold private things about your child, so reading one means signing in to our staff queue, not opening an inbox. The alert passes through our email provider, which may process it outside Australia; that is why it carries as little as possible.

Security — honestly stated

Passwords and recovery codes are stored only as salted scrypt hashes. Sessions expire automatically. Sign-in attempts are rate limited. What we don't yet have — and won't claim — is an independent security audit; one is on our roadmap, and we'd rather tell you that than say "bank-grade" and hope.

Deletion — your right, one click

From the Account page you can delete any learner or delete the entire family account. Deletion is immediate and permanent, and we otherwise retain data only while your account exists.

Two exceptions, and we would rather tell you now than when it matters.

• If you tell us something indicating a child may have been harmed, we keep that record even if you delete your account. We have to be able to account for how we responded, and there is no time limit on when that can be asked.
• Notes a psychologist, counsellor or teacher writes about a consultation, and everything an assessment produces — the scored instrument, the screener results and the report — are health records. They are kept separately from the learning platform, they are not ours to delete on request, and the rule is that they are held until the child turns 25 or seven years after the last appointment — whichever is longer. Only the practitioner who wrote a note can read it.

Everything else — every lesson, every piece of work, every progress record, your account itself — goes, and we keep no copy of it.

Questions, corrections, complaints

Email admin@parksydeltd.com or call 0467 937 659. You can ask what we hold about your family, correct it, or delete it. If you're not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au). This policy follows the Australian Privacy Principles; we'll note material changes here with a new date.