Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible for your data

SAMIA (Smart Academic Management Information Application) is published by Consistency Solutions, a company established in Cameroon, reachable at info@consistency-solutions.com and on +237 680 014 493.

Two situations must be distinguished:

• School data (students, parents, staff). The school decides what is collected and how it is used: it is the data controller. Consistency Solutions acts as a processor: we provide the software and, in the hosted plan, we store the data on the school's behalf and follow its instructions. Where SAMIA is installed on the school's own servers (on-premise), the data never leaves the school and we only access it when asked to intervene.
• Prospect and support data (a school requesting a demo, a message sent to our contact address). For these, we are the data controller.

If you are a parent and your request concerns your child's records, please contact the school first: it holds and controls that information. We assist the school whenever needed.

2. Data we process

SAMIA only processes the data a school needs to operate. Depending on the modules the school has enabled, this includes:

This information comes from the school, from the enrolment files provided by families, and from the use of the application by staff and parents.

We do not sell any data, we do not rent it out, and we do not use it for advertising or marketing targeting.

3. Why we process it

• Managing schooling: enrolments and re-enrolments, student records, classes, school certificates and student cards.
• Academic follow-up: entering marks, computing averages and ranks, issuing report cards.
• Managing school fees: payments, receipts, tracking outstanding amounts and reductions.
• Keeping families informed: sending report cards, payment reminders, meeting invitations and school announcements.
• Producing official reports required by school management and the education authorities (enrolment figures, statistics, school mapping).
• Securing the application: authentication, access rights management, audit trail, backups.

These activities are based on the performance of the school's educational mission and of the contract between the school and families, the school's legitimate interest in administering its activity, compliance with its legal and regulatory obligations, and — for communications that are not strictly necessary to schooling — the consent of the individuals concerned.

4. Communication by WhatsApp, SMS and email

SAMIA lets the school send parents messages relating to school life: a report card becoming available, a fee reminder, a meeting invitation, a student absence, a general announcement. These messages are sent by the school, in its own name, to the contact details families provided at enrolment.

Consent and opting out

A parent who gives their phone number to the school agrees to be contacted about their child's schooling. You remain in control at all times:

• To stop receiving messages, reply STOP to the message you received, block the sender in WhatsApp, or simply ask the school to remove your number from its messaging list.
• To change channel (receiving email instead of WhatsApp, for example), let the school know: contact preferences are stored in the student's record.
• You will still receive, through another channel, the communications the school is required to send you regarding your child's schooling.

Cost and frequency

Messages are sent at the school's initiative, based on school-life events. They are not charged to the recipient parent; the school bears the cost of sending them.

5. Who we share data with

Data is only accessible to school staff authorised by management, each according to their access rights (a teacher does not see the accounts, a cashier does not enter marks). Outside the school, we rely on a small number of technical providers:

Each provider acts only for the purpose stated and remains bound by confidentiality. As a result, data may be processed outside Cameroon (notably in Europe and the United States): we work with established providers offering contractual data protection guarantees.

Finally, the school may be required to pass certain information on to the education authorities (the ministry in charge of education, inspectorates, official examination bodies) under its regulatory obligations, or to respond to a lawful judicial request.

6. Retention periods

• Student records: kept for as long as the student attends the school, then archived by the school in line with its school-records obligations (so that a report card or certificate can be reissued years later).
• Financial data (payments, receipts): kept for the period required by applicable accounting and tax rules.
• History of messages sent (number, content, delivery status): 12 months at most, long enough to evidence what was sent and to bill it, then deleted.
• Technical and audit logs: 12 months.
• Demo requests and commercial correspondence: 3 years from the last contact, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.

When our contract with a school ends, its data is returned to it in a usable format, then deleted from our servers.

7. Security and hosting

• Protected access: every user has a named account and a password, and only sees what their privileges allow.
• Encrypted communication: all traffic to and from the application goes over an encrypted connection (HTTPS).
• Separation between schools: each school has its own database, isolated from every other school's.
• Traceability: data creation and changes are logged.
• Regular backups, so that data can be restored in the event of an incident.

No system is infallible. Should a data breach occur that is likely to affect individuals, we inform the school concerned without delay and assist it with the required steps and notifications.

8. Children's data

By its very nature SAMIA processes data about children. That data is provided by the school and by parents or legal guardians as part of enrolment; students do not create accounts of their own accord. It is used solely to follow the child's schooling and is never subject to advertising profiling or sold on to third parties for commercial purposes. Rights over this data are exercised through the parents or legal guardian.

9. Your rights

Under the applicable regulations, you have the right:

• to access the data concerning you or your child, and to obtain a copy of it;
• to have it corrected where it is inaccurate or incomplete (spelling of a name, date of birth, phone number);
• to request its deletion where keeping it is no longer justified;
• to object to certain processing, in particular to receiving messages that are not essential to schooling;
• to request its portability, in a readable and reusable format.

Such requests should be addressed first to the school, which is responsible for the student's records. You may also write to us at info@consistency-solutions.com: we will forward the request to the school and support it in responding, normally within 30 days.

10. This website and cookies

The www.samia-edu.com website is a showcase site. It sets no tracking cookies, uses no analytics tool and does not track you across sites. The only data transmitted is what you voluntarily send us when writing to us (name, school, contact details, message content), so that we can answer your request.

11. Changes to this policy

This policy may change, in particular to reflect new SAMIA features or regulatory developments. The date of the last update appears at the top of the page. Where a change is significant, schools using the software are informed directly.

12. Contact us

For any question about this policy or about how your data is processed:

• Consistency Solutions — publisher of SAMIA
• Email: info@consistency-solutions.com
• Phone: +237 680 014 493
• Cameroon

If your request concerns a student's school records, please tell us which school is involved and we will put you in touch with the right contact.