Privacy Policy
How Famnet collects, uses, and protects your personal information.
Last Updated: January 1, 2025
1. Introduction
Famnet Services Limited ("Famnet", "we", "us", or "our") operates the Famnet School Management System, accessible at famnet.co.tz and schools.famnet.co.tz. We are a school information management company registered in Tanzania and headquartered at New Bagamoyo Road, Victoria House, 3rd Floor, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store, and protect personal information when you use our website and services. By accessing our platform or registering a school account, you agree to the practices described in this policy.
We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of students, parents, teachers, and school administrators who use our platform.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information You Provide Directly
- School administrators: Name, school name, email address, phone number, number of students, physical address, and billing details.
- Teachers & staff: Full name, employee ID, contact information, academic qualifications, and employment records.
- Students: Full name, date of birth, class/grade, registration number, academic records, attendance data, and parent/guardian contact details.
- Parents/guardians: Full name, phone number, email address, and relationship to student.
- Contact form submissions: Name, email, phone number, school name, and message content.
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
- IP address and approximate geographic location
- Browser type and version
- Pages visited and time spent on the platform
- Device type and operating system
- Referring URLs
- Session data and login timestamps
2.3 Payment Information
We collect fee-related records for school subscriptions. Payment card data is processed securely by third-party payment processors and is not stored on our servers.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect to:
- Provide, operate, and maintain the Famnet platform and all its features
- Process school registrations, subscriptions, and parent portal access
- Send SMS and email notifications regarding exam results, fees, attendance, and announcements
- Generate academic reports, analytics, and performance dashboards
- Provide technical support and respond to inquiries
- Improve our system features and user experience
- Send service updates, billing reminders, and policy changes
- Ensure system security, detect fraud, and prevent unauthorized access
- Comply with applicable Tanzanian laws and regulations
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.
4. Sharing of Information
We may share your information only in the following circumstances:
- Within the school ecosystem: Student data is shared between teachers, administrators, and authorized parents within the same school account. Access is strictly role-based.
- SMS providers: Phone numbers are shared with licensed Tanzanian SMS gateway providers solely for delivering notifications.
- Technical service providers: We use trusted cloud infrastructure and analytics providers who are contractually bound to protect your data.
- Legal compliance: We may disclose information when required by Tanzanian law, court order, or regulatory authority.
- Business transfers: In the event of a merger or acquisition, user data may be transferred as part of the transaction, with prior notice.
5. Children's Privacy
Famnet serves schools and processes data about students, including children under the age of 18. We take the protection of children's data very seriously.
- Student data is only accessible to authorized school administrators, teachers, and the student's own parent/guardian.
- Children do not interact directly with our public website. Student data is entered by school administrators on behalf of enrolled students.
- We do not knowingly collect personal data directly from children for marketing or advertising purposes.
- Schools using Famnet are responsible for obtaining appropriate consent from parents/guardians under Tanzanian education regulations before enrolling student data on the platform.
6. Cookies & Tracking Technologies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience. The types of cookies we use include:
- Essential cookies: Necessary for login sessions and secure access to the system.
- Analytical cookies: Help us understand how visitors use our site (e.g., Google Analytics). This data is anonymized.
- Preference cookies: Remember your language and display preferences.
You may disable cookies through your browser settings, but this may affect the functionality of the platform. For more details, see our Cookie Policy.
7. Data Security
We implement industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information:
- SSL/TLS encryption for all data transmitted over the internet
- Encrypted storage for sensitive data fields
- Role-based access control (RBAC) to restrict data access
- Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments
- Secure, redundant data backups
- Audit trails for all system access and data changes
- 99.9% uptime infrastructure with disaster recovery protocols
Despite these measures, no system can be completely secure. In the event of a data breach affecting your information, we will notify affected parties as required by applicable law.
8. Data Retention
We retain personal data for as long as necessary to provide our services:
- Active accounts: Data is retained for the duration of the school's subscription.
- After account termination: Data is retained for up to 3 years to comply with Tanzanian education and financial regulations, then securely deleted.
- Contact inquiries: Retained for 2 years.
- Billing records: Retained for 7 years as required by Tanzanian tax law.
Schools may request deletion of their data at any time by contacting us, subject to legal retention obligations.
9. Your Rights
As a user of the Famnet platform, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Right to access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Right to correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Right to deletion: Request deletion of your data, subject to legal obligations.
- Right to object: Object to processing of your data for certain purposes.
- Right to portability: Request your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Right to withdraw consent: Withdraw consent for SMS/email communications at any time.
To exercise these rights, contact us at info@famnet.co.tz. We will respond within 30 days.
10. Third-Party Services
Our platform may integrate with or link to third-party services including:
- Google Analytics – for anonymized website usage statistics
- SMS Gateway Providers – licensed Tanzanian telecom partners for notifications
- Payment Processors – for school subscription billing
- Cloud Infrastructure Providers – for hosting and data storage
These third parties have their own privacy policies and we encourage you to review them. We are not responsible for the practices of third-party services.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services or applicable laws. When we make significant changes, we will:
- Update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page
- Notify registered users via email or in-system notification
- Post a notice on our website homepage
Your continued use of Famnet after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.