Privacy policy

Acorn Apps Pty Ltd (ABN 19 695 896 032) trading as Flying School (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal and business information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard information when you use our multi-tenant flight school management platform, mobile applications, and website (www.flyingschool.app).

By creating an account, accessing our services, or interacting with a Flying School workspace, you consent to the collection and processing of your data as outlined in this policy. See also our Terms and conditions.

1. Important Distinction: Data Controller vs. Data Processor

To understand your privacy rights on Flying School, it is important to distinguish between our two roles in handling information:

• Flying School as a Data Controller: We control the information used to manage your account, billing parameters, platform interactions, and marketing relationships directly with you (the School owner or Staff User).
• Flying School as a Data Processor: For the personal data of your students (for example student names, booking histories, training notes, and intake answers), you (the School owner) act as the Data Controller. We process this information strictly on your behalf, bound by the multi-tenant isolation rules of our architecture. We do not own, sell, or use your students' data for our own business purposes.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information across three categories depending on how you interact with our platform:

A. Information You Provide to Us Directly

• Account Registration: Name, email address, password, phone number, business name, and physical school address.
• Billing Information: Credit card data and billing details. Note: All credit card data is transmitted securely and directly to our PCI-DSS compliant gateway provider, Stripe; we do not store raw card numbers on our infrastructure.
• Support Interactions: Information provided when you submit a support ticket, chat with our team, or send inquiries to support@flyingschool.app.

B. Information Automatically Collected

• System Log Data: IP addresses, browser types, operating systems, access times, and the specific workspaces you visit within our app.
• Usage Metrics: Features used (for example staff configurations, aircraft allocations), system latency, and API execution tracking to manage your usage ceilings.
• Cookies & Identifiers: Small tracking files used to keep you securely logged into your master profile across multiple workspace domains without re-authenticating.

C. Information Collected from Third Parties & Public Sources

• Onboarding Extraction Tool: When initializing your workspace, our automated utility reads and parses public profile configurations (such as your public lesson rates, durations, and services) strictly to pre-populate your catalogue.
• Integrations: If you opt in to link your workspace with Xero or QuickBooks, we ingest tax rates, customer matching tokens, and invoice status updates required to sync your accounting books.

3. How We Use Your Information

We process personal and operational data based on legitimate business grounds, primarily to provide the platform:

• To provision, maintain, and secure your digital workspace.
• To send transactional notification messages (SMS and email confirmations and reminders).
• To process subscription renewals, add-on charges, and prorated plan adjustments via Stripe.
• To monitor system resource capacity limits (tracking active instructor seats and aircraft counts against your active tier).
• To detect, prevent, and mitigate security threats, multi-tenant perimeter breaches, or fraudulent activities.
• To comply with statutory tax, legal, and financial reporting obligations under Australian law.

4. How We Share and Disclose Data

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal or business data to third-party data brokers or advertisers. We share your information exclusively with trusted sub-processors necessary to run the platform:

Category of Sub-Processor	Primary Purpose	Example Providers Used
Cloud Infrastructure	Secure database hosting and multi-tenant computing.	Fly.io
Payment Gateway	Encrypted billing, subscription processing, and portal checkout.	Stripe
Notification Networks	Routing outbound operational emails and SMS.	Twilio / email delivery provider
Accounting Systems	Invoice and tax rate syncing (if you connect them).	Xero or QuickBooks

• Legal Mandates: We may disclose your information if explicitly required to do so by law, court order, or a binding regulatory inquiry issued within New South Wales or Federal Australian jurisdictions.

5. Multi-Tenant Security & Storage

Your data is housed within enterprise-grade data centers. Flying School uses logical application-layer isolation so that data assigned to a specific workspace identifier remains hidden from other tenants using the platform.

Data Retention Window

• Active Accounts: We retain your account context for as long as your workspace remains in good standing.
• Expired Trials & Cancelled Plans: If a trial or subscription expires without payment renewal, your workspace drops into a holding state. We securely store this metadata for 30 days. After 30 days, we reserve the right to permanently purge configuration settings, staff profiles, and student parameters from our active tables.

6. Your Rights & Choices (Australian Privacy Principles)

Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), you possess clear rights regarding your personal information held by us:

• Access & Correction: You can access, review, and edit your profile and school details at any time by logging into your settings screen.
• Data Portability: You can export your student records, transaction histories, and form configurations via the CSV/JSON export tools in your dashboard.
• Account Deletion: You may request the permanent closure and destruction of your master user profile by contacting us at support@flyingschool.app.

7. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect regulatory updates or changes to the platform. When revisions occur, we will modify the “Last Updated” timestamp at the top of this page. For significant modifications that alter your data rights, we will send a notice through your configured notification channels.

8. Contact & Complaints

If you have questions regarding this Privacy Policy, wish to ask how your information is processed, or believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles, contact us:

• Email: support@flyingschool.app
• Entity: Acorn Apps Pty Ltd (ABN 19 695 896 032)
• Mailing Scope: Attn: Privacy Compliance Officer

If you are unsatisfied with our internal response to a privacy dispute, you have the statutory right to escalate the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au.