Privacy Policy

The Freethinking School respects the privacy of parents, guardians, prospective families, students where applicable, website visitors, educators, applicants, vendors and other people who interact with the School.

This Privacy Policy describes how The Freethinking School handles personal information in connection with its official website, admissions and programme enquiries, campus-visit requests, telephone and email conversations, official WhatsApp interactions, workshops or events, and relevant school administration.

The Freethinking School is a Montessori educational organisation serving families in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India since 2013. This policy uses “the School”, “we”, “us” and “our” to refer to The Freethinking School. It does not automatically govern a separate service that presents its own privacy notice.

We seek to handle personal data in accordance with applicable Indian data-protection requirements as they apply to our operations, including the phased framework of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025. This statement is not a claim that every provision applies to every activity.

The information we receive depends on how you interact with the School. It may include:

Contact information

A parent’s, guardian’s or other adult’s name, email address, telephone number, city or preferred location.

Enquiry information

The campus or programme of interest, a child’s age or age group where relevant, visit preferences, and the details included in a message.

Admissions information

Information reasonably needed to discuss or administer an admission, including parent or guardian details and child-related information requested through an authorised admissions process.

Event and communication information

Workshop or event registration details, correspondence, feedback, and records of communications where they are retained for follow-up or administration.

Technical information

Basic request and security information that may be processed when a device connects to the website, such as IP address, browser or device information, requested page, referring page, timestamp and security signals.

Please do not send sensitive or extensive information about a child through an ordinary website message, email or public communication channel unless the School has requested it through an appropriate process.

We may receive information directly from you when you call or email us, contact an official School WhatsApp channel, submit an authorised admissions or event form, schedule a visit, or communicate with a campus or administrative team.

Our hosting and security infrastructure may receive technical request information automatically when you use the website. We may also receive information through a service you intentionally use to contact us, register, obtain directions, watch a video or make an enquiry.

This version of the website does not provide user accounts and does not contain an embedded form that collects a parent’s name, telephone number, email address or message at the date shown above. The Contact page includes a non-persistent campus and programme planner, then opens the School’s approved external admissions system for personal-data entry. Email and telephone links open the relevant service on your device. If we introduce a public form or another collection method, we will review this policy and the notice shown at the point of collection.

We use personal information only for relevant and lawful purposes, which may include:

• responding to questions and requested follow-up;
• providing information about Montessori, programmes and campuses;
• scheduling or coordinating campus visits;
• supporting admissions-related conversations and requests;
• communicating with parents and guardians about requested or existing services;
• organising workshops, events or school activities;
• maintaining necessary school and administrative records;
• operating, securing, troubleshooting and improving the website;
• preventing misuse, fraud or security incidents; and
• meeting applicable legal, regulatory or institutional obligations.

We distinguish operational communications from optional promotional communications. An admissions enquiry does not by itself mean that you have agreed to receive unrelated or unlimited marketing.

When a parent or guardian asks about admission, a programme or a campus visit, the School may request contact details, a preferred campus, the programme of interest, a child’s approximate age or age group, and other information reasonably needed to respond.

We use this information to understand the request, coordinate a visit or conversation, recommend an age-appropriate programme, and provide the follow-up requested by the parent or guardian. A later admissions stage may require additional information through an authorised process.

Please provide only information reasonably necessary for the enquiry. Do not include medical records, identity documents or detailed developmental information in a general enquiry unless the School has specifically asked for it through an appropriate channel.

The public website and its enquiry routes are intended for parents, guardians and other adults. Children should not independently submit personal information through public website forms, email links or messaging channels.

Where information concerning a child is needed for a legitimate educational, admissions or school-administration purpose, the School seeks to collect it from or with the involvement of a parent or lawful guardian and to handle it with heightened care.

The School does not use children’s personal information for behavioural advertising. We do not ask a young child to provide consent independently through the public website. Where verifiable parental consent or another safeguard is required for a particular activity, the relevant operational process must support it.

The website is delivered through cloud hosting and security infrastructure. Technical request information may be processed to deliver pages, diagnose errors, prevent abuse, maintain availability and protect the website.

At the date shown above, this Astro website does not include Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel or another browser-based audience analytics or advertising tag. We will update this policy and implement an appropriate choice mechanism before introducing non-essential tracking.

Separate legacy or third-party pages reached from the School’s website may use their own technologies and privacy notices. The “Third-party services and links” section below explains this further.

Cookies are small data files that a website or service may store in a browser. They can support essential operation, remember preferences, measure usage or enable marketing, depending on how a site is configured.

At the date shown above, this website does not intentionally set analytics, preference or marketing cookies, and it does not display a cookie-preference control because no non-essential browser tracking is implemented in the project. Hosting and security services may process essential technical information needed to deliver and protect the site.

If we introduce non-essential cookies or similar technologies, we will provide clear information and an appropriate preference mechanism before relying on them.

We may use the contact details you provide to answer an enquiry, coordinate a campus visit, support an admissions process, deliver requested information or communicate about an existing School relationship.

Where promotional email or messaging is optional, you may ask us to stop by using an unsubscribe method provided in the message or by contacting us. Stopping optional marketing does not prevent necessary service, safety, admissions or administrative communications.

If you contact an official School account through WhatsApp or another messaging service, that service is operated by its provider and may process information under its own terms and privacy policy. The Freethinking School does not operate or control the WhatsApp platform.

Personal information may be shared only where reasonably necessary for the purpose described, to operate or protect the School and its services, or to meet an applicable obligation. Recipients may include authorised School personnel, relevant campus teams, service providers acting for the School, professional advisers, and government, regulatory or law-enforcement authorities where disclosure is legally required.

We aim to limit access to people and providers who need the information for an authorised purpose. We do not publish a speculative vendor list in this policy; the School should maintain an internal record of the systems and providers used for relevant processing.

The School may use service providers for website hosting and security, cloud infrastructure, forms, email, communications, admissions administration or related operational support. A provider should receive only the information reasonably needed to perform the relevant service.

The current website is deployed using Cloudflare infrastructure. Other authorised technology providers may operate systems or infrastructure in India or other jurisdictions. Where information is processed outside India, we seek to use providers and measures appropriate to the service and applicable requirements. We do not claim a particular transfer certification or contractual mechanism unless it has been verified for that processing activity.

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and for relevant operational, admissions, school-administration, security, dispute-resolution, legal or regulatory needs.

The appropriate period can differ by record and purpose. We do not state fixed periods here because a verified organisation-wide retention schedule has not been published. Information that is no longer reasonably required should be securely deleted, anonymised or otherwise handled in accordance with the applicable process.

The Freethinking School uses reasonable administrative, organisational and technical measures intended to protect personal information. Depending on the system, these may include restricted access, secure connections, cloud security controls, credential practices, backups and staff procedures.

No website, transmission method or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If you believe information shared with the School may have been accessed or used improperly, please contact us promptly using the details below.

Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, you may contact us to ask about personal information relating to you, request correction or updating, withdraw consent where processing depends on consent, request deletion where applicable, change communication preferences, or raise a concern about how information is handled.

We may need sufficient information to understand the request, confirm identity and protect another person’s privacy. Some information may need to be retained where there is a valid operational, legal, safety or record-keeping reason.

To make a request, use the privacy contact details at the end of this policy. We have not described a Data Protection Officer because no such appointment has been verified for publication.

The website may link to services such as maps, social media, YouTube, Vimeo, WhatsApp, admissions platforms or external educational resources. Selecting a link may take you to a service operated by another organisation.

Those services process information under their own terms and privacy policies. Review the relevant service’s information before submitting personal data. A link does not mean that The Freethinking School controls the third party’s privacy or security practices.

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our website, services, practices or applicable requirements. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page will show when this version was revised.

Where a change materially affects how information is handled, we will consider whether an additional notice is appropriate for the relevant interaction.

The Freethinking School is the organisation responsible for this website and the School interactions described in this policy. For a privacy question, concern or request, contact the administrative team using the verified details below.