Privacy policy

Updated 9 October 2026

This notice explains how Private School processes personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR / DSGVO). It covers this directory; schools and other websites linked from it have their own privacy notices.

1. Controller and contact

The person responsible for processing personal data through this directory is:

Use this contact or our contact form for questions, requests concerning your data, or withdrawal of consent. Please provide only the information needed to identify your request.

2. Visiting the website and keeping it secure

Requests to the website necessarily disclose technical connection information to our hosting infrastructure. This can include your IP address, request time, requested URL, response information and browser or device information. Hostinger delivers the website and stores its application records.

We process this information to provide a reliable website, diagnose faults and prevent misuse. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR: our legitimate interest in operating and securing the directory. Hostinger processes hosted visitor data on our behalf under its data processing addendum. The feature-specific deletion rules below apply to active directory records. Provider-managed security logs and backups follow the hosting service’s operational retention arrangements; contact us for details applicable to a specific request.

Contact and Partner form abuse controls use a keyed hash of the submitted email address, separate hourly request counts and a site-wide counter for each form. The counter keys do not contain the email in readable form, and submitting an address does not verify an account identity. Other form and shortlist controls use a hash derived from an account identifier or a verified proxy IP address; when a trustworthy address is unavailable, those controls share an anonymous security counter. These security counters expire at the end of the hour, and bounded batches of expired records are removed during subsequent rate-limited requests.

3. Saved schools, comparison and currency preferences

When you are signed out, saving a school sets the first-party school_shortlist cookie with a random token. The database stores a hash of that token and your selected school IDs. The list expires 30 days after the latest save or removal; expired records are removed during subsequent shortlist changes. You can remove individual schools using their saved-school controls. Deleting the cookie removes your access to the list but does not immediately delete the server records.

Comparison choices (up to three school IDs) and your selected fee-display currency are stored in this browser tab’s session storage when you choose those features. Clear comparison choices using the comparison bar, or clear the site’s browser data. Tab-session storage normally ends when the tab session ends; browser session restoration can retain it.

The browser shortlist, comparison and currency features can be used without a visitor account, name or email. We use them to fulfil your explicit request and to retain your choices during navigation. Article 6(1)(f) GDPR applies to personal data involved in these functions, based on our interest in providing the requested features. Necessary device storage is covered by § 25(2)(2) TDDDG. See the cookie policy for names, lifetimes and controls.

Currency rates are retrieved by our server from Frankfurter. This request sends currency codes, not your enquiry, email or browser identity. Images and fonts used in directory pages are served locally or supplied by your device; source links do not load external school media automatically.

The placement checker uses an optional birth date only in browser memory to calculate an entry-year result. The date is not submitted to our server, placed in a URL or written to browser storage, and is cleared when you leave or reload the page. The fee worksheet also keeps entered extra costs only in browser memory. Neither tool requests a child’s name.

4. Contact and school requests

If you contact us by email or the contact form, we process your name and email where provided, your message, submission and acknowledgement timestamps, reference and handling status to respond. School listing, correction and proposed Partner requests additionally store the school name, website, work email and selected request type.

Processing is based on Article 6(1)(b) GDPR where necessary to take steps towards or perform a contract with you. Otherwise, including correspondence with a school’s representative, Article 6(1)(f) applies to our interest in answering enquiries, verifying authority and maintaining accurate school information. A privacy-notice acknowledgement does not authorise unrelated marketing.

Contact details and the relevant request information are needed to respond or review the requested service. Submission is optional and does not start a paid subscription. Contact-form messages are stored in the operator’s protected inbox; the form does not send an automatic email.

Our retention policy is to review the inbox monthly and manually delete completed correspondence and unconverted school requests within 90 days of receipt. If a matter is still active at that point, we keep it until handling and follow-up are complete, then delete it within 30 days of closure. Records needed for an ongoing agreement, a specific dispute or a legal retention duty are retained separately for that purpose. This is a manual retention process, not automatic deletion after 90 days.

5. Parent enquiries and school recipients

Where a school enquiry form is available, we store the adult sender’s name, email, question, selected school, reference, consent and submission timestamps, review status and, where applicable, school-release and staff-read timestamps. The named school’s verified staff can additionally record an assignee, follow-up dates and internal notes, progress and resolution summaries, and a history of these changes. These records support the school’s handling of the enquiry and are visible to its authorised staff; they do not prove a response was delivered. Deleting the enquiry also deletes its internal activity history. Article 6(1)(a) GDPR is the basis for processing this optional enquiry and sharing it with the named school as authorised by your consent. You can withdraw consent at any time through the contact above. Withdrawal does not affect processing already lawfully performed.

Enquiries are received in the operator’s protected inbox for manual review. Submission does not automatically share the enquiry with school staff. After review, the operator can explicitly release it to verified staff of the named school through their protected school dashboard. Received or reviewed status alone does not mean the school has access, has read the enquiry or has replied. When an enquiry is released or forwarded, the named school receives it and becomes responsible for its own handling under its privacy notice. The monthly review and 90-day retention policy described above also applies to enquiries. An enquiry still being handled is deleted within 30 days of closure, unless a specific legal duty or dispute requires longer retention. A withdrawal or deletion request is assessed separately under the GDPR rather than waiting for that review cycle.

Many listed schools are outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Before any transfer to such a school, an applicable GDPR transfer basis must be established. If separate explicit consent under Article 49(1)(a) is needed, we will first explain the destination, recipient and relevant risks and seek that consent. The enquiry checkbox alone is not such a transfer consent. You can instead contact the school directly through its admissions link.

These forms are for adults. Do not include a child’s name, date of birth, identity documents, health information or other sensitive personal data. These details are not needed in messages or school enquiries.

6. Payments, if a Partner service is agreed

A school request does not take payment. If a separate paid service is agreed and payment setup is enabled, Stripe provides hosted Checkout and the billing portal. The operator may send a business contact email and school or request identifiers to Stripe, and store customer, checkout and subscription identifiers, subscription status and recurring amounts. Card details are entered with Stripe, not in directory forms.

Article 6(1)(b) GDPR covers necessary contractual processing, Article 6(1)(f) covers business-representative and payment-administration data, and Article 6(1)(c) covers applicable tax and accounting obligations. Financial records are kept for the statutory period applicable to the record. Deleting a directory request does not cancel a subscription or erase records that must legally be retained. See Stripe’s privacy policy before using its payment services.

7. Sign-in, recipients and international hosting

The directory manages sign-in and validates sessions on its server. If you choose Google sign-in, Google authenticates you and supplies an account identifier, verified email address, profile name and optional profile image. We use these details to create or retrieve your directory account and restrict access to protected features. Google handles its own account processing under its privacy policy. Email/password registration and password recovery remain unavailable until a verification-email service is configured. When email/password access is enabled, passwords are stored as hashes, and verification and recovery messages use temporary tokens.

When you use account features, the directory stores your account identifier, verified email, display name, account role and status, creation and last-seen timestamps, and authentication records needed to validate and revoke sessions. Your chosen display name is editable in your account. Signed-in saved schools are linked to your account, available across devices, and have no automatic 30-day expiry. Importing a browser shortlist into your account requires an explicit action. New enquiries submitted while signed in are linked to that account; historical anonymous enquiries are not linked by matching email. You can remove saved schools yourself or request account correction or deletion through the contact above. Account records currently require manual deletion handling and do not expire automatically. Administrative and profile changes create an audit record containing the actor and target identifiers, action, time and limited change metadata, without copying enquiry messages into that record. These records support account features, access control and investigation of changes; Article 6(1)(f) GDPR applies to our interest in providing and securing those requested features.

If you request school staff access, we store your account and school references, staff name, job title, work email, verification information you provide, request status and review timestamps. The owner records the official school contact or evidence checked before granting access. A verified membership is limited to that school and its explicitly released enquiries; it does not grant directory administration access. Access pauses if the account is suspended, the membership is revoked or the sign-in email no longer matches the verified account email. Membership and verification records currently require manual retention review and deletion handling.

Verified school staff can propose changes to supported school profile fields. We store the submitting account reference and staff name, school and profile revision, previous and proposed values, source link, reason, submission status and times, and any administrator review note, reviewer reference and publication revision. The school’s authorised staff can view its proposals, and authorised administrators can review them. A proposal does not change the public profile until an administrator explicitly approves publication. These records support correction requests and an accountable review history; they currently require manual retention review and deletion handling.

Dashboard notifications store account, school and enquiry references, creation and read times, and notification preferences. Verified staff may opt into email alerts for newly released enquiries and can turn those alerts off in their account. Email alerts are sent only when the operator has configured and enabled sending. If Resend is configured, it receives the staff recipient’s email address, sender and reply-to details, a generic alert and a link to the protected dashboard. Alert emails do not contain the parent’s name, email or question. We store bounded delivery and retry records to operate these alerts. Email provider credentials entered by the owner are stored encrypted and are not displayed again. These features support handling requested school enquiries and securing staff access; they do not authorise marketing emails.

Access to submissions is restricted to the operator, explicitly authorised administrators with access appropriate to their role, and service providers needed to operate the service, with school sharing and payments limited as described above. Hostinger and Google may process data outside the EEA depending on the service and processing location. Hostinger describes its hosting locations and transfer safeguards in its privacy policy and data processing addendum. Google describes its international processing in its privacy policy. Contact the controller to request information or a copy of applicable transfer safeguards. No exclusively German storage location is promised.

8. Aggregate measurements and school suggestions

Outbound school-link counts contain the school ID, day, destination type and total count. No visitor identifier is stored in these aggregate totals. The application installs no advertising or optional analytics cookies and does not build advertising profiles.

Verified staff can view reports for their authorised school using aggregate outbound-link counts and totals derived from enquiries explicitly released to that school. Reports include workflow counts, follow-up and resolution measures and calendar-day totals; they do not include parent names, email addresses, questions or internal staff notes. These reports do not establish unique visitors, confirmed admissions, response delivery or a parent’s receipt of a response.

School suggestions compare your selected filters with published school information. They do not decide admissions or produce a legal or similarly significant decision about you. We do not carry out automated decision-making of the kind described in Article 22 GDPR.

9. Your rights

Subject to the GDPR’s conditions, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction of processing and data portability. You may withdraw consent for future processing at any time. Where processing rests on legitimate interests, you may object for reasons relating to your particular situation. You may object to direct marketing at any time.

Contact the controller above. We may request proportionate information to verify your identity. We normally respond within one month; any lawful extension will be explained. If you contact us about a saved list, do not publish its cookie token.

You may lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority, including one in the country of your habitual residence, workplace or the alleged infringement. For the operator’s address in Schleswig-Holstein, you can contact the Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz Schleswig-Holstein / Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz (ULD), Holstenstraße 98, 24103 Kiel, Germany; mail@datenschutzzentrum.de; complaint and reporting forms.