Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Smart Panda is a business name of Muralikrishna Venkatachalapathy (ABN 22 897 812 386), based in New South Wales, Australia. We are the entity responsible for the personal information described in this policy, and you can reach us at admin@smartpanda.com.au or through the support page.

Smart Panda provides online practice tests and worked solutions for the NSW Selective High School Placement Test. We take the privacy of families and children seriously and handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This policy explains what we collect, why, how we store it, and your rights.

2. Accounts are parent-controlled

Accounts are created and managed by a parent or guardian, who registers their child (“the student”) and consents to this policy on the child’s behalf. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children, and the service is intended to be used under parental supervision.

3. What we collect

• Parent/guardian details: name, email address, and phone number (optional).
• Free trial / enquiry details: if you take our free trial or fill in a form, we may collect the email address you provide (and, for the trial, the resulting score) so we can send your results and, where you consent, information about Smart Panda.
• Student details: first name and school year level.
• Learning data: the answers, writing responses, scores, results and progress generated as the student uses the tests.
• Purchase records: which tests/packs were bought and the amount paid. We do not collect or store credit card numbers — payments are processed securely by Stripe (see below).
• Support and feedback messages you send us — including, automatically, the page you were on and your browser type, so we can find the problem you’re describing without a back-and-forth. The form tells you this before you send.
• Basic technical data needed to run the service, such as sign-in session cookies.

4. How we use it

• To provide the tests, mark answers, and show results and progress.
• To show your account email faintly across test pages and worked solutions. This discourages copying and sharing of our material, and is visible only to the person signed in.
• To generate automated writing feedback (see §5 — this involves a third-party AI provider).
• To process purchases and keep a record of them.
• To respond to support requests and keep your account secure.

If you tick the optional box when creating your account, or give us your email through the free trial or an enquiry form, we may send you occasional emails about Smart Panda. This is always opt-in — it is never bundled with accepting these terms, and we record when you gave consent. You can change your mind at any time from Settings → Email preferences, using the link in any such email, or by contacting us.

Turning marketing email off never stops the messages you need in order to use the service — purchase receipts, password resets, and replies to your own support messages. We do not sell your personal information, and we don’t use it for third-party advertising.

5. Who we share it with

We only share personal information with the service providers we rely on to run Smart Panda:

• Stripe — to process payments securely (they handle your card details, not us).
• Supabase — our database and sign-in provider, where your account and learning data is stored, in their Sydney (Australia) region.
• Our website hosting provider — to run the site.
• Anthropic — when a student submits a writing task, the response is sent to Anthropic’s AI service to generate marking feedback. It is used only to produce that feedback.
• Google — we use Google Workspace for our email. When you send us a support or feedback message, or give us your email address on the free trial, a copy is emailed to us so we notice it, which means its contents pass through and are stored in Google’s mail service.

6. Where your data is stored

Your account and learning data is stored in Australia. Our database and sign-in provider, Supabase, hosts it in their Sydney region, so student names, year levels, test attempts, answers and results stay onshore.

Some things necessarily leave Australia, and we want to be straightforward about which:

• Writing responses are sent to Anthropic’s AI service overseas to generate marking feedback, then returned and stored here. Under our agreement with them, Anthropic does not use it to train their models anddeletes it within 30 days. Longer retention applies only if content is flagged under their usage policy. The marked result stays in our Sydney database for as long as your account is active.
• Payment details are handled by Stripe on their own global infrastructure. We never see or store your card details.
• Notification copies of messages you send us — a support message, or the email address you give on the free trial — are emailed to our own mailbox so we notice them, which means a copy passes through and is stored in Google’s mail service. The message itself is stored in our Sydney database.
• The website itself is served by Netlify, a US company. Pages are delivered from their global network, so the request that loads a page may be handled outside Australia. Netlify does not hold your account or learning data — that stays in our Sydney database.

Where information is handled outside Australia, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled consistently with the APPs.

7. How long we keep it

We keep your account and learning data for as long as your account is active, so the student’s history and progress remain available to you.

If an account has not been signed in to for 24 months we treat it as inactive, and delete or anonymise the account and its learning data. We’ll email the address on the account first.

You can ask us to delete your account and data at any time (see §9) and we will do so, except where the law requires us to keep something. In practice that means purchase and payment records, which we keep for 5 years to meet Australian tax and record-keeping obligations. Support and feedback messages are kept for 24 months so we can see the history of an issue if it recurs.

8. Security

We protect your information with encryption in transit, access controls, and reputable infrastructure providers. Card payments are handled entirely by Stripe. No online service can be guaranteed 100% secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your data and will notify you and the relevant authority of an eligible data breach as required by law.

9. Your rights — access, correction & deletion

You can access or correct your personal information from your account settings, or by contacting us. You can also ask us to delete your account and data. If you have a privacy concern, contact us first via the support page and we’ll work to resolve it. If you’re not satisfied, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

10. Cookies

We use essential cookies to keep you signed in and to run the service. We don’t use advertising or third-party tracking cookies. Our Cookie Policy names each one, what it does and how long it lasts.

11. Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. We’ll post the updated version here with a new “last updated” date.

12. Contact

Questions about your privacy, or want to access or correct what we hold? Reach us through the support page or email admin@smartpanda.com.au. We aim to respond within 30 days, as the Privacy Act requires.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).