Legal
Privacy Policy for students
Who this is for
This is for you if you go to a school that uses Kestrel. It is written for students. There is a longer Privacy Policy for adults, which says the same things in more detail.
The short version
- Your school keeps a record about you. Kestrel is the computer system it keeps it in.
- Your school decides what goes in your record.
- You can ask to see it, ask for a mistake to be fixed, and complain.
- Kestrel never shows you ads and never sells anything about you.
Who looks after your information
Your record belongs to your school. A company called Hoverpoint makes Kestrel and keeps your record safe for your school. Your record is kept in Australia.
Hoverpoint does not use your record for anything of its own.
What your school needs to keep
Your school needs these to teach you, to keep you safe, and to do what the law asks a school to do.
- About you
- Your name, your birthday, your year level and your classes, and who in your family the school contacts.
- Being at school
- The class roll, the days you are away and the reason your family gives, and the times you arrive late or leave early.
- Staying safe and well
- Health needs, such as an allergy or a medicine. Notes staff write about how you are going, and anything that happened at school that staff had to deal with.
- Your school work
- The tasks you are set and the marks you get. A teacher may also write down things like your leadership, your strengths or what helps you learn, in their own words and with their name on it. Only staff who teach you or look after you read it.
- Forms
- What you or your family send the school on a form.
What you can choose not to give
On a form, a question with a star (*) needs an answer. You can leave any other question empty.
Your school can also keep its own kinds of information in your record. If you want to know why, or whether you have to give it, ask your school.
Signing in at the front desk
If you arrive late or leave early, you may sign in or out at a kiosk. That is a screen at the front desk. You find your name, or type your PIN or card number, and choose a reason.
When you press the button, the kiosk keeps a record of who you are, the time, whether you arrived or left, the reason you chose, and which campus the kiosk is at. It can print a slip. The office and your teachers can see what it kept.
Someone else may be standing next to you. So the kiosk shows only your first name, the start of your family name and your year level. It goes back to its start screen by itself.
Using your own account
Your school may give you your own Kestrel account. Each time you open something in it, Kestrel keeps a record of who opened it, what it was, and when. Staff at your school can see that record.
When you sign in, Kestrel makes a record that keeps you signed in as you move from page to page. That record also has the internet address your device used to sign in and the name of your web browser.
Who can see your information
- Staff at your school. Each person sees only the parts of your record their job lets them see.
- Your parents or carers, in the parts your school shows them.
- You, if your school has given you an account.
No-one else is given your record. If a court or a law makes Hoverpoint hand something over, Hoverpoint tells your school first, unless the court says it must not.
What Kestrel never does
- Kestrel never shows you an ad.
- It never tracks where you are or what you do on other websites.
- It never scans your face.
- It never treats what a teacher writes about you as a fixed label for who you are.
- It never sells anything about you.
- It never uses your information to train a computer program.
Using Kestrel without your name
Your school needs to know it is really you on the roll, at the kiosk and in your account. So you cannot use a made-up name there.
Some forms your school publishes are anonymous. The form tells you before you send it. Then Kestrel keeps nothing about who filled it in, apart from what you type.
What you can ask for
- You can ask to see what your record says about you.
- You can ask for a mistake to be fixed.
- You can ask for something to be deleted. The law says some records have to be kept for a number of years, like the roll. If yours is one of them, we tell you which parts are kept and until when.
- You can complain if you think your information has been handled badly.
Asking costs nothing. A parent, a carer or another adult you trust can help you ask, or ask for you.
How to ask
Start with your school: a teacher or the office. Your school knows your record and can fix most things itself.
You can also write to Hoverpoint at privacy
Before we show you anything, we have to be sure it is you. So we may check with your school.
What happens next
- If we agree with you, we fix it and tell you what changed.
- If we do not agree, we write to you and tell you why.
- If you are still unhappy, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. It is the government office that looks after privacy in Australia. You can reach it at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992. You do not have to ask us first.
If your school is in England
- Your school is in charge of your record. Hoverpoint only does what your school asks.
- Your record is kept in Australia. Before it goes there, your school and Hoverpoint sign an agreement that keeps it protected the way the law in England asks.
- If you ask your school to see your record, it answers within one month. If your question is a big one, it can take two more months, and your school tells you why within the first month.
- If you are still unhappy after asking your school, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. It is the government office that looks after personal information in the UK. You can reach it at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
If this page changes
The version and date at the top tell you which one you are reading. If Kestrel starts to keep something new about you, this page changes first.