This policy explains what Study Compass collects about New Zealand families, why, where it's kept, and how to see, correct or delete it. It follows the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and its information privacy principles.
Study Compass is run by an Australian sole trader (ABN 89 274 700 789) based in Melbourne. We are responsible for your information wherever it is stored.
At a glance
- We collect very little. A parent's name, email and phone number, and a child's first name or nickname, year level and schoolwork.
- No ads, ever. We don't sell information or use it for advertising, and there's no tracking once you sign in.
- Kept in Australia. Accounts and schoolwork are stored on servers in Sydney.
- Work, not names. Our writing marker never receives your child's name.
- Parents are in charge. You can see, download, correct or delete your family's information, free.
If you're a student reading this: we keep your answers and writing so we can choose your next lesson and show your grown-up how you're going. We don't show your name to anyone else, and there are no ads.
What we collect
| Who | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Parent | Name, email address, phone number, password (stored encrypted), country, email choices | To run your account, contact you about it, and send the emails you choose |
| Child | First name or nickname, year level, username, answers, writing, test results, time spent | To plan lessons, mark work and show progress |
| Payments | Your plan, payment dates and payment status from our payment provider | To know who has an active subscription |
| Messages | Feedback and emails you send us | To answer you and improve Study Compass |
| How you found us | The page you first landed on, the site that sent you and any campaign tag on the link | To learn which channels bring families. Never shared or used for advertising |
| Public pages | Visits counted by Google Analytics, with cookies only if you accept them | To see which pages help parents. See our cookies page |
We don't ask for a child's surname, birthday, school, photo or address. Use a nickname for your child if you'd prefer.
Where it comes from. Most of what we know about your child comes from you, their parent or caregiver, when you set up their profile, and from the work they do in Study Compass. We don't collect information about your family from anyone else.
If you'd rather not give us something we ask for, we may not be able to open or run your account. New parent accounts need a phone number so we can reach you about your account if email fails. We don't use it for marketing calls or texts.
How we use it
We use your family's information only to run Study Compass: to plan and mark your child's work, show progress in the parent view, send account and progress emails, take payments and answer your questions. We may look at overall, de-identified patterns (for example, which lessons are hardest) to improve our lessons.
We only send marketing emails, such as news about new features, if you've said yes. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can change your choices in Settings at any time.
Our writing marker
When your child hands in writing, or asks for help with a question after a test, that text goes to our AI service in the United States to be marked or explained. It never includes your child's name. Our provider doesn't use it to train its models, and neither do we.
Who helps us
A small number of service providers help run Study Compass, and each gets only what it needs:
- Hosting and database, which store accounts and schoolwork in Sydney, Australia.
- Payments, handled by a certified payment provider. We never see your card number.
- Email, to send account emails and the updates you choose.
- Our writing marker, an AI service that processes writing and test answers in the United States.
- Google Analytics, on public pages only, and with cookies only if you accept them.
Each provider is bound by a contract to protect your information and to use it only for us. We never sell information or share it for advertising, and we'd only share it otherwise if the law required us to. If Study Compass were ever sold, your information would pass to the new owner only under this policy, and we'd email you first. Email hello@studycompass.com.au if you'd like the names of our providers.
Where it's kept
Your family's information is stored in Australia, and writing sent for marking is processed in the United States. When our providers store or process information for us, we stay responsible for it under the New Zealand Privacy Act, and we choose providers whose protections are comparable to New Zealand's.
Australian and American laws protect personal information too, but in different ways. If something went wrong with an overseas provider, you might not have the same remedies against that provider under New Zealand law. You can always complain to us, and to the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner.
How long we keep it
We keep your family's information while your account is open. If you close your account, we delete your details and your children's work within 30 days. Backups clear themselves within a further 30 days.
We keep payment records (the plan, dates and amounts, never card numbers) for 7 years, because tax law requires it.
Your rights
You can ask to see everything we hold about your family, get a copy, or have anything corrected or deleted. It's free. Email hello@studycompass.com.au from the address on your account. We'll reply as soon as we can, and within 20 working days. If we ever can't do what you ask, we'll tell you why.
If we don't agree to a correction, you can ask us to keep a note with your information saying what you think it should say.
Keeping it safe
Everything is encrypted in transit and at rest. Each family can only ever see its own information, and the database itself enforces that, not just the website. Only Study Compass can look inside an account, and only to answer a support request you've sent.
If a privacy breach is likely to cause someone serious harm, we'll tell the people affected and the Privacy Commissioner as soon as we can, as the Privacy Act requires.
Children
Study Compass is made for children, so a parent or caregiver always opens the account and decides what each child's profile holds. Children can't make public posts, message other users or see anyone else's work. A child can ask to see their own information too, and we'll involve their parent.
Questions and complaints
Our privacy officer handles every privacy question. Email hello@studycompass.com.au with "Privacy" in the subject line. We'll look into any complaint and tell you what we found, usually within 20 working days.
If you're not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz or on 0800 803 909.
Changes to this policy. If we make an important change, we'll email you before it takes effect and update the date at the top of this page.
Study Compass, ABN 89 274 700 789, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.