Student privacy and data protection

Who is responsible

The school is the controller: it decides which students and parents or guardians take part and which rules apply. Reclaim Time Ltd is the processor: we run the service on the school’s behalf, under a data processing agreement with the school, and use the data for nothing else.

Reclaim Time Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom, company number 09822326. Questions: .

During school hours

No activity is recorded. No list of apps or websites used and no times of use, sealed or otherwise. FocusMe looks at the app or website in use only to apply the school’s rules, and this stays on the device. The only figures kept are those a rule itself needs, such as time used against a time limit.

Outside school hours

Home activity is recorded only once a parent or guardian invited by the school has accepted the invitation and set up their key in FocusMe for Families. The parent or guardian can switch it off at any time, and so can the school for any student. The school can never switch it on. When it is on, FocusMe records for each day:

• the names of the apps and websites used (for example “youtube.com” or “Minecraft”) and the time spent on each, and the total screen time;
• blocked attempts: which app or website, and how many times;
• only if the parent or guardian switches on the timeline: the start and end time of each use that day.

While home activity is on, the student’s device shows a notice saying so. Every change to what is recorded, by whom and when, is kept in a history the parent or guardian can see.

Sealed activity: who can read it

• Home activity is encrypted on the student’s device before it is sent. The device holds no key that can open it again.
• Only a parent or guardian linked to the student can read it, in their own browser, with their own key. Their key is protected by a recovery code that only they hold.
• The school and FocusMe cannot read it. Our servers hold it only in encrypted form.
• If a parent or guardian stops being linked to the student, they receive no further activity from that moment.
• Troubleshooting: a parent or guardian may open a time-limited window letting FocusMe support read their child’s activity to help with a problem. It ends on time, or earlier if they close it, and every read by support is logged and shown to them. Only they can open it.

What we never do

• Sell or share student data, or use it for advertising, marketing or profiling.
• Use it to train AI.
• Let a parent or guardian see another family’s child, or let the school see the content of a family’s home rules. The school sees only whether a parent or guardian has joined and how many home rules they have.

Where the data is held

Where data reaches a country that Switzerland, the UK or the EU does not recognize as giving adequate protection, we protect it with recognized safeguards, such as the Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework for certified companies or standard contractual clauses. The data processing agreement with the school lists every provider.

How long we keep it

• Home activity: deleted automatically 13 months after the day it records.
• Accounts, devices and rules: kept while the school uses the service. When the school asks, FocusMe deletes a student’s data, and the linked parent or guardian accounts as well if the school asks; a parent or guardian can also delete their own account.
• Email log: a record of each email sent to a parent or guardian (address and subject) for 180 days.
• At the end of the service: everything is deleted at the school’s request.

Security

• Every connection, between the device, our servers, the school dashboard and the parent or guardian pages, is encrypted (HTTPS).
• Home activity is sealed on the device as described above.
• School staff see only their own school, according to their role.
• FocusMe’s installers are code-signed.

Rights and documents

Students and parents or guardians may ask to see their data, correct it, have it deleted, restrict or object to its use, or receive a copy. Please ask the school, which is responsible for answering; we help it.

Schools: ask us for our full privacy notice for schools, students and parents or guardians, and our data processing agreement.