Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Ridgewood School, Mirganj (“we”, “us”, “our”) operates the website ridgewoodschools.com to serve parents, students, staff, and visitors of our school community. We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of every person who interacts with our website. This Privacy Policy explains in detail how we collect, use, store, share, and protect your personal information when you visit our website, fill out an admission registration form, submit an enquiry, log in to the Parent Portal, or otherwise interact with our online services.

This Privacy Policy is published in compliance with the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, as applicable in India. It also aligns with the principles of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, where applicable. By accessing or using our website, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and consented to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use our website or submit any personal information through our online forms. If you have any questions or concerns about how we handle your data, please contact us using the information provided in Section 11 of this policy.

2. Information We Collect

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide when you interact with our website. The types of information we collect depend on the specific service or form you are using. Below is a detailed breakdown of the data we collect:

• Admission Registration Form Data: When a parent or guardian fills out the 4-step admission registration form, we collect the following information: student's full name, date of birth, age, gender, class for which admission is sought, academic year, previous school name and class, father's full name, father's occupation, father's mobile number (required), father's email address, mother's full name, mother's occupation, mother's mobile number, mother's email address, residential address, transport requirement (yes/no), sibling name and class, special needs or medical conditions (if any), mother tongue, category (General/OBC/SC/ST), and uploaded documents including student photograph, birth certificate, and Aadhaar cards of student, father, and mother. These documents are collected solely for the purpose of admission processing and verification.
• Enquiry Form Data: When a visitor submits the admission enquiry form, we collect the parent's or guardian's name (required), phone number (required, 10 digits), email address (required), child's age, grade of interest, and any optional message the parent wishes to share about their child. This information is used to follow up with the parent regarding their enquiry and to provide information about our school and admission process.
• Parent Portal Login Credentials: When a parent logs in to the Parent Portal, we collect their registered 10-digit mobile phone number and password. Passwords are stored using bcrypt encryption (a one-way hashing algorithm) and cannot be read in plain text by anyone, including school staff. The portal also displays student-specific information including report cards (term-wise marks and grades), school notices, participation in events and activities, and a private photo gallery of the student.
• Technical and Browser Data: We automatically collect certain technical information when you visit our website, including your browser type, device type (mobile, tablet, desktop), screen resolution, and the pages you visit. This information is collected through browser APIs and is used solely for improving website performance, ensuring compatibility, and providing a better user experience. We do not use this data to identify individual users personally.
• Form Auto-Save Data: When you are filling out the admission form or enquiry form, your entered data is automatically saved in your browser's localStorage to prevent data loss in case of accidental page refresh or browser closure. This data is stored locally on your device and is not transmitted to our servers until you submit the form. Once submitted, the local draft is automatically cleared.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the personal information we collect for the following specific and lawful purposes:

• To process and evaluate admission applications for prospective students at Ridgewood School, Mirganj, and to communicate admission decisions to parents and guardians.
• To respond to enquiries from parents and visitors about the school, its curriculum (CBSE), facilities, admission process, fee structure, and other school-related information.
• To provide parents and guardians with secure access to their child's academic records, including report cards, attendance, participation certificates, and school notices, through the Parent Portal.
• To send important school communications, including holiday notices, parent-teacher meeting schedules, fee reminders, event invitations, and emergency announcements.
• To verify the identity and authenticity of documents submitted during the admission process, including birth certificates and Aadhaar cards.
• To improve our website's content, navigation, design, and performance based on how visitors interact with different sections of the site.
• To maintain academic records as required by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and other regulatory authorities.
• To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and government directives in India, including any requirements from the Bihar State Education Department.
• To protect the security and integrity of our website by preventing fraudulent submissions, unauthorized access, and misuse of online forms.

We do not use your personal information for any purpose other than those described above. We do not use your data for targeted advertising, behavioral profiling, or selling to marketing companies.

4. Data Storage and Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously and have implemented multiple layers of protection to safeguard your data:

• Database: All personal data is stored on MongoDB Atlas, a cloud-based database service hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). MongoDB Atlas provides encryption at rest (AES-256) and encryption in transit (TLS/SSL), ensuring your data is protected both when stored and when transmitted.
• Access Control: Access to the database and personal data is restricted to authorized school staff members only. Staff must log in with their credentials to access any personal information. All database access is logged and monitored.
• Password Encryption: Parent Portal passwords are encrypted using bcrypt hashing with a salt factor of 10. This means passwords cannot be read in plain text by anyone, including the school administration or database administrators. Even in the unlikely event of a data breach, passwords remain protected.
• HTTPS: Our entire website is served over HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) with a valid SSL/TLS certificate, ensuring all data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted.
• Document Uploads: Documents uploaded through the admission form (photos, certificates, Aadhaar cards) are transmitted securely and stored in the database. Access to these documents is restricted to authorized staff for verification purposes.
• No Payment Data: We do not collect, store, or process any payment card information (credit cards, debit cards, UPI, etc.) on our website. All fee payments are handled offline through the school office.
• Regular Updates: We keep our software, server, and database systems updated with the latest security patches to protect against known vulnerabilities.

Despite our best efforts, no system can be 100% secure. In the unlikely event of a data breach, we will notify all affected individuals within 72 hours and take immediate steps to secure the data, investigate the breach, and prevent future incidents, in accordance with applicable Indian data protection laws.

5. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise share your personal information with any third party for commercial or marketing purposes. Your data is shared only in the following limited circumstances:

• Email Service Provider: We use Gmail (Google) as our email service provider to send admission confirmations, enquiry responses, and notifications to the school administration. When you submit a form, an automated email is sent to Ridgewoodmirganj@gmail.com with your form details. Google may have access to this email in transit, but does not use your data for advertising or profiling.
• Legal Compliance: We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, court order, government regulation, or at the request of law enforcement agencies. This includes requests from the Bihar State Education Department, CBSE, or other regulatory bodies with jurisdiction over educational institutions.
• Parent/Guardian Access: Parents and guardians can access their own child's information through the Parent Portal. This is not “sharing” — it is providing the parent with access to information they are entitled to see.
• Service Providers: We may use third-party services (such as MongoDB for database hosting and Vercel for website hosting) that necessarily have access to some technical data. These providers are contractually obligated to protect your data and are prohibited from using it for their own purposes.

We never share, sell, or distribute student or parent data with marketing companies, advertising networks, data brokers, social media platforms, or any other commercial entity. We do not use third-party analytics services (like Google Analytics) that track individual user behavior across websites.

6. Cookies and Local Storage

Our website uses the following browser storage mechanisms to enhance your browsing experience and prevent data loss:

• localStorage: This is a browser feature that allows us to save data on your device. We use localStorage for three purposes: (1) auto-saving admission and enquiry form data as you type, so you don't lose progress if you accidentally refresh; (2) remembering that you've already seen the welcome gate animation (Saraswati gate) so we don't show it again in the same session; and (3) remembering that you've dismissed the “Install App” banner so we don't bother you with it for 7 days. localStorage data persists on your device until you clear your browser data. You can clear it at any time through your browser settings.
• sessionStorage: Similar to localStorage, but the data is automatically cleared when you close your browser or tab. We use sessionStorage to remember if you've seen the welcome gate in the current browsing session. This ensures the gate doesn't show on every page refresh, but does show again when you close and reopen your browser.
• Service Worker: Our website includes a service worker (a small script that runs in the background) for Progressive Web App (PWA) functionality. The service worker caches the homepage for offline viewing and enables the “Add to Home Screen” feature on Android and desktop. The service worker does not collect, track, or transmit any personal data.

We do not use any of the following: third-party tracking cookies (like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or similar), advertising cookies, cross-site tracking cookies, fingerprinting technologies, or any other invasive tracking mechanisms. The only data stored in your browser is for form auto-save and user experience purposes, and it never leaves your device.

7. Your Rights Regarding Your Data

As a user of our website and as a parent or guardian of a student at Ridgewood School, Mirganj, you have the following rights regarding the personal information we hold about you and your child:

• Right to Access: You can request a copy of all personal data we hold about you or your child at any time. We will provide this information within 30 days of receiving your request.
• Right to Correction: If any information we hold is inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated, you can request that we correct it. This includes correcting spelling errors in names, updating phone numbers or addresses, or fixing incorrect class/grade assignments.
• Right to Deletion: You can request that we delete your personal data, subject to legal retention requirements. For example, academic records must be retained for a minimum period as per CBSE guidelines. Enquiry data can typically be deleted upon request.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: You can withdraw your consent for data processing at any time. If you do so, we will stop using your data for the purposes described in this policy, except where we are legally required to retain it.
• Right to Data Portability: You can request a machine-readable copy of your personal data that you can transfer to another service provider.
• Right to Clear Browser Data: You can clear your browser's localStorage at any time through your browser settings to remove any form drafts, welcome gate memory, or install banner dismissal. This does not affect data already submitted to the school.
• Right to Object: You can object to the processing of your personal data for specific purposes (such as sending communications) and we will stop processing your data for that purpose.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at Ridgewoodmirganj@gmail.com or call +91 70522 24726 during office hours (Monday to Saturday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM). We will respond to your request within 30 days. There is no charge for exercising any of these rights.

8. Children's Privacy

Our website is designed primarily for parents, guardians, and staff of Ridgewood School, Mirganj. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under the age of 18. All admission-related data is submitted by parents or legal guardians on behalf of their children.

Student photographs uploaded through the admission form are used solely for identification purposes during the admission process and are not published publicly without parental consent. The school may photograph students during school events and activities for use in the public gallery on the website and in promotional materials. If you do not wish your child's photograph to be published on the website or in promotional materials, please notify the school in writing at the time of admission.

The Parent Portal's private photo gallery contains photos of students that are visible only to the parent of that specific student. Other parents cannot see your child's private photos, and you cannot see other children's private photos. This access control is enforced at the database level.

If you believe we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child without parental consent, please contact us immediately so we can investigate and delete the information.

9. Data Retention Policy

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required by law. Our specific retention periods are:

• Admission Form Data: Retained for the entire duration of the student's enrollment at Ridgewood School, plus 3 years after the student leaves the school. This is to comply with CBSE academic record requirements and to provide transfer certificates if needed.
• Enquiry Form Data: Retained for 2 years from the date of submission. After 2 years, enquiry data is automatically deleted unless the enquiry resulted in an admission, in which case the data is merged with the admission record.
• Parent Portal Access: Access is active while the student is enrolled. When the student leaves the school, portal access is deactivated within 30 days. Login credentials are deleted from the database.
• Uploaded Documents: Birth certificates, Aadhaar cards, and student photos are retained with the admission record. They are deleted when the admission record is deleted.
• Browser localStorage Data: Form drafts are retained on your device until you submit the form (after which they are cleared) or until you clear your browser data. We have no access to this data.
• Server Logs: Technical server logs (if any) are retained for up to 90 days for security and debugging purposes, then automatically deleted.

You may request earlier deletion of your enquiry data at any time by contacting the school. Admission data deletion requests are subject to CBSE retention requirements and may take up to 30 days to process.

10. Third-Party Links and Services

Our website contains links to third-party websites and services, including:

• Google Maps: Used to display the school's location on an interactive map. Google may collect browsing data when you interact with the map embed. Please refer to Google's Privacy Policy for details.
• Social Media Links: Our website links to the school's official Instagram (@ridgewoodmirganj), Facebook, and YouTube pages. These platforms have their own privacy policies that govern data collection when you visit their sites.
• Hosting Services: Our website is hosted on Vercel, and our database is hosted on MongoDB Atlas (AWS). These providers may collect server-level technical data (IP addresses, request logs) but do not have access to the content of personal data stored in the database.
• Google Fonts: Our website loads fonts from Google Fonts CDN. Google may collect IP address information when fonts are requested. No personal data is sent to Google Fonts.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party websites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party website you visit from our site.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update or modify this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or the services we offer. When we make material changes to this policy, we will:

• Update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page
• Post the revised Privacy Policy on this page
• Notify parents and guardians via the Parent Portal or email if the changes significantly affect how we handle their data

We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we protect your data. Your continued use of our website after any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms.

12. Contact Information

If you have any questions, concerns, requests, or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy or the way we handle your personal information, please contact us using the details below. We are committed to addressing your concerns promptly and transparently.

For data protection complaints, please first contact us at the above details. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may also raise a complaint with the appropriate data protection authority in India.