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Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) • ST4S & kidSAFE+ Aligned

Privacy Policy & Child Safeguards

At Sketch Minds Academy, student privacy and child digital safety are foundational. We never sell student data, enforce strict data minimization, and store all records in encrypted sovereign Australian cloud infrastructure.

🇦🇺 Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)•🛡️ ST4S 10-Domain Aligned•👶 Under-13 COPPA Safeguards•📅 Updated: September 2026

1. Information Collection & Data Minimization

In compliance with Australian Privacy Principle 3 (APP 3), Sketch Minds collects only the personal information strictly necessary to provide educational courses and track learning milestones:

  • Parent / Guardian Data: Full Name, Email Address, Contact Phone, and Billing History (Stripe tokenized).
  • Student Profile Data: Student First Name / Display Nickname, School Year / Grade Level (e.g. Year 6), Age Bracket, and Avatar Customization.
  • Learning Telemetry: Enrolled courses, lesson completion percentages, quiz scores, capstone submissions, earned Sketch Coins, and course study notes.
👶 Data Minimization for Minors: We do not require students under 18 to supply individual email addresses or phone numbers. Minor accounts are managed under parent/guardian supervision.

2. Sovereign Cloud Hosting & Cryptographic Defense

We maintain sovereign Australian data residency to safeguard educational records:

Sovereign Residency

Databases are hosted in Sydney, Australia (AWS ap-southeast-2) via MongoDB Atlas and Vercel Sydney (syd1).

Encryption Architecture

TLS 1.3 forced HTTPS in transit, AES-256 encryption at rest, and Bcrypt (cost 10) password hashing.

3. Zero Commercial Advertising & Child Tracking

Sketch Minds operates on a 100% Commercial Ad-Free Model:

  • We do not sell, rent, monetize, or trade student personal information with third parties.
  • Zero behavioral ad trackers, remarketing pixels, or third-party advertising SDKs are loaded on student pages.
  • Video lectures are streamed strictly using privacy-enhanced youtube-nocookie.com mode to prevent minor profiling.

4. Data Retention & "Right to Erasure"

Under APP 11.2, we permanently erase personal data when it is no longer required:

  • 12 Months Inactivity Purge: Student profiles, notes, and quiz histories with 12 consecutive months of inactivity are permanently purged from our database.
  • Parent Self-Service Deletion: Parents may permanently delete their account and purge all child records at any time via Parent Portal (/parent) > Settings > Delete Account.
  • Tax Records: Financial transaction references are archived securely for 7 years as mandated by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

5. Educational AI & Conversational Privacy

Our AI educational chatbot ("Sketchy AI") operates with strict child-safety guardrails. Student inquiries are filtered against harmful content, profanity, and personal data exfiltration. Chat logs are processed securely for real-time educational assistance and are not sold to third-party advertisers.

Looking for Platform Terms & Course Policies?

Review our 180-day course access limits, 5-course active quota, and student integrity guidelines.

Read Terms of Service
Have questions or data deletion requests? Contact our Data Protection Officer at sketchmynds@gmail.com or compliance@sketchminds.com.au (Sydney, NSW, Australia).