Privacy Policy
Last updated: 19 August 2026
Schools Near Me ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your personal data. This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, and your rights under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
1. Who we are
Schools Near Me operates the website at schoolsnearme.ai. For data protection queries, contact us at hello@schoolsnearme.ai.
2. What data we collect and why
| Data | Purpose | Legal basis | Stored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page views & clicks (no personal data, no cookies) | Understand which pages are useful | Legitimate interest | Plausible Analytics (EU) |
| Email address (if you create an account) | Account authentication, send receipts | Contract performance | Supabase (EU) |
| Email address (if you subscribe to school updates) | Send school data update alerts | Consent | Supabase (EU) |
| Payment details | Process Pro subscription payment | Contract performance | Stripe (we never see card numbers) |
| Error reports (browser type, JS errors, page URL) | Fix bugs in production | Legitimate interest | Sentry (EU) |
| Funnel events (pages visited, features used — with consent) | Improve the product | Consent | PostHog (EU) |
| Shortlisted schools | Remember your saved schools across sessions | Legitimate interest | Your browser (localStorage) + Supabase if signed in |
We do not sell your data to third parties. We do not use your data for advertising.
3. Cookies
We aim to use as few cookies as possible.
- Plausible Analytics — cookieless. No cookie is set. No consent is required.
- Supabase Auth — sets a session cookie (
sb-*) when you are signed in. This is strictly necessary for the service to function. - Stripe — sets cookies during the checkout flow only. Required for fraud prevention.
- PostHog — analytics cookie set only if you accept the cookie banner. You can decline without affecting site functionality.
Cookie preferences are stored in your browser's localStorage under the key cookie_consent. You can clear this at any time in your browser settings.
4. School data and the Developer Platform
Most school information displayed by Schools Near Me describes institutions and aggregated cohorts, not individual pupils. Sources include Department for Education datasets, Ofsted publications and, on consumer pages only where permitted, other published sources such as ISI and school websites. Source terms differ: not every source is covered by the Open Government Licence.
The paid Developer Platform licenses access to a non-personal institutional school dataset and related software service. It does not sell personal data. Launch API and MCP responses use a narrower commercial field policy and exclude ISI material, fees, catchments, AI summaries and school-site-derived content unless separate rights are confirmed.
For developer accounts we process the account holder's name, email, organisation, subscription status, API-key prefix (never the full stored secret), request counts, operation names, status codes, latency and billing identifiers. We use these details to authenticate requests, enforce limits, provide usage and billing, prevent abuse, support customers and meet legal obligations. Stripe processes payment-card details; Schools Near Me does not receive full card numbers.
Do not include pupil data, special-category personal data, confidential information or other personal data in API search parameters, API-key names or support request identifiers.
5. Third-party services
| Service | Purpose | Privacy policy |
|---|---|---|
| Plausible Analytics | Cookieless page-view analytics | plausible.io/privacy |
| Supabase | Database & authentication | supabase.com/privacy |
| Stripe | Payment processing | stripe.com/gb/privacy |
| Sentry | Error monitoring | sentry.io/privacy |
| PostHog | Product analytics (with consent) | posthog.com/privacy |
| Netlify | Hosting & serverless functions | netlify.com/privacy |
6. How long we keep your data
- Account data — kept until you delete your account, plus 30 days.
- Email subscriptions — kept until you unsubscribe.
- Payment records — kept for 7 years (legal requirement).
- Error logs (Sentry) — 90 days.
- Analytics (PostHog) — 12 months rolling.
7. Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to:
- Access — request a copy of the data we hold about you.
- Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate data.
- Erasure — ask us to delete your data ("right to be forgotten").
- Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
- Object — object to processing based on legitimate interest.
- Withdraw consent — at any time, for processing based on consent.
To exercise any of these rights, email hello@schoolsnearme.ai. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
8. Data security
We use HTTPS throughout the site. Database access is restricted by row-level security policies. Payment data is handled entirely by Stripe and never passes through our servers. We regularly review access controls and third-party service security postures.
9. Children's data
This site is aimed at parents and guardians, not children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via a notice on the site. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised.
Contact us about privacy
Email: hello@schoolsnearme.ai
Or use the contact form at schoolsnearme.ai/about