Privacy Policy — Gurukul-TEAM (Amarpatan)

What the app collects, why it collects it, and how it is protected.

This Privacy Policy describes how Gurukul Academy Higher Secondary School, Amarpatan ("the School", "we", "us") collects, uses and protects information when you use the Gurukul-TEAM (Amarpatan) web and mobile application (the "App"). TEAM stands for Teachers and Employees Attendance Management. The App is a staff-only workforce-management tool — it is not a public social product. Parents and students do not log in to the App.

By using the App you agree to the practices described below. If you do not agree, please do not use the App. Questions can be sent to gurukulamarpatan@gmail.com.

1. Who this policy applies to

The App is used by:

  • School staff — teachers, class teachers, coordinators, the principal and the school admin/owner. Each staff member logs in with an email and password created by the school admin.

Student names, classes and house membership are stored in the App for the purpose of marking class attendance and routing per-student attendance alerts to the appropriate staff Telegram groups. Student-facing data is never exposed through a public login; only authenticated staff can view it.

2. Information we collect

a) Account information

  • Name, email address, phone number (if provided by the staff member), role (teacher / coordinator / principal / director / school admin), assigned classes and sections, and whether the staff member is permanent or guest.
  • Passwords are stored only as cryptographic hashes by our identity provider (Firebase Authentication, Google Cloud). We never store or transmit plaintext passwords.
  • A temporary "must change password" flag is set on first login so the staff member must choose their own password before using the App.

b) Attendance and leave records

  • Daily clock-in / clock-out timestamps, work mode (on-campus / remote / leave), and the staff member's self-reported remote reason (when applicable).
  • Leave applications (Casual Leave, Medical Leave, Earned Leave, Compensatory Off, half-day) and their approval status (pending / approved / rejected) along with approver identity and approval timestamp.
  • Monthly attendance summaries (working days, Sundays, gazetted holidays, present, CL within allowance, LWP deducted, attendance percentage) computed from the records above.

c) Punch photograph (selfie)

  • Each time a staff member marks attendance (punches IN or OUT), the App opens the front camera and takes one photograph of the staff member. This is what makes a punch verifiable: a clock-in is a claim about a person being present, and the photograph is the record of who made it.
  • The photograph is a single still image, stored in the App's database (Google Firebase) with the date, the punch type (IN or OUT) and a device identifier. It is visible only to authenticated school staff with the permission to review attendance.
  • Photographs are deleted automatically 90 days after they are taken. The App has no facility to keep one longer, and the deletion is performed by a scheduled job and not by a person.
  • The camera is used only at the moment of a punch. It is never accessed at any other time, and no audio or video is recorded — one still photograph, nothing else.
  • The App performs no facial recognition and derives no biometric template or face signature from the photograph.
  • If the camera is unavailable, or permission is refused, the staff member can still complete the punch after a short delay. The record then shows that no photograph was taken, and the administrator is notified so the gap can be reviewed rather than hidden.

d) Location data

  • The App reads the device's location each time a staff member marks attendance, in order to confirm that the punch was made inside the school campus (the "geofence").
  • For an ordinary punch that confirms the campus, the check is a comparison made at that moment and no coordinates are stored. Coordinates are stored only for a flagged punch — one whose location could not confirm the campus — together with the distance from the campus and the reported accuracy, so that the school can review what happened.
  • When a staff member submits a remote clock-in request, the App captures the device's GPS coordinates (latitude, longitude), the reported accuracy in metres and the capture timestamp, and stores them together with the request for the school's review and approval.
  • Location is never collected continuously and never in the background. It is read only while a punch or a remote clock-in request is being made, and the staff member is shown on screen when a flagged location is being recorded.
  • Flagged-punch locations are deleted automatically 90 days after the punch. Coordinates stored with a remote clock-in request are kept with that request as part of the attendance record.
  • If the staff member denies location permission, the remote clock-in request can still be submitted without GPS — the school simply sees "no GPS" in the request and decides whether to approve on the merits of the reason text.

e) Notifications via Telegram

  • Punch and leave events (the staff member's name, the type of event and its time) are posted by the App to a school-configured staff Telegram group via the official Telegram Bot API, so that the day's attendance is visible to the staff room as it happens.
  • For staff who have linked their Telegram account (optional), the App sends per-student attendance alerts ("Present / Absent / Late") to a school-configured Telegram group via the same API.
  • For the parent-attendance-alert feature, parents who have linked their Telegram handle receive one direct message per day per child. Only the parent's chat ID and the matched student are stored on our side.
  • Fee-ledger entries (a student's payment, its amount and its receipt number) are posted to a separate, school-configured accounts group on Telegram, visible to the school's accounts staff. The App's finance features are restricted to the school's administration and accounts staff.
  • No Telegram content from your account is ever read or stored; the App only sends messages and listens for one-way commands you opt in to.

f) School holiday calendar

  • A read-only list of Central Government of India and Madhya Pradesh state gazetted holidays, plus school-declared vacation windows (Summer / Winter), is stored in the App's database. This list is used only to compute monthly attendance summaries and contains no personal data.

g) Usage analytics and device identifier

  • The App uses Google Analytics 4 to record which screens are opened, so that the interface can be improved. Each record carries the staff member's account identifier and their role (teacher / coordinator / principal / director / admin), and identifies the device by its type. IP addresses are anonymised before storage. Google's practices are described in Google's privacy policy.
  • The App generates a random device identifier the first time it runs on a phone and stores it on that phone. It contains no personal information and is used only to tell one device from another — for example, to notice the same account punching from several phones, or a photograph that failed to save.

3. What we do NOT collect

  • We do not create biometric templates, and we run no facial recognition, on the punch photograph or on anything else.
  • We do not collect contacts, microphone or audio, or any file from the staff member's device.
  • We do not read or record the device's location in the background or as a movement history; the App's location use is limited to the punch and remote-clock-in checks described above.
  • We do not show advertising. The App carries no ad network and no advertising identifier.
  • We do not track you across other websites or apps.
  • We do not sell any personal data to anyone, ever.

4. How we use the information

  • To authenticate staff and authorise access to the relevant school's data.
  • To record daily attendance, approve leave, and compute the monthly reports the school admin shares with the principal.
  • To send one-way notifications on Telegram that the staff member or parent has explicitly opted in to.
  • To fulfil legal, accounting and regulatory record-keeping obligations under Indian labour and education law (for example, retaining attendance and leave records for the period required by the relevant State Government notifications).

5. Where the data is stored and who can see it

  • All data is stored on Google Firebase (Firestore + Cloud Authentication), in Google's Mumbai / asia-south1 region. Firebase is operated by Google LLC under their standard data-processing terms.
  • Only authenticated staff of Gurukul Academy, Amarpatan can read or write data, and Firestore security rules restrict each role to the data it needs (for example, a teacher sees their own attendance; the admin sees all).
  • The third-party service that processes data on our behalf is Google LLC. Their privacy practices are described at policies.google.com/privacy.
  • For Telegram alerts, the Telegram Bot API is used as a delivery channel only. Telegram's privacy practices are described at telegram.org/privacy.

6. Data retention

  • Attendance, leave and monthly-report data is retained for the duration required by Indian / Madhya Pradesh labour and education record-keeping norms, and then archived or deleted at the school's discretion.
  • If a staff member leaves the school, the admin disables their account. Their attendance records are retained (they belong to the school's payroll record) but their authentication credentials are disabled so they can no longer log in.
  • Forgotten-password reset links sent by Firebase expire after 1 hour for security.
  • Punch photographs and flagged-punch locations are deleted automatically 90 days after they are recorded, by a scheduled job, whether or not anyone asks. This is the shortest window the school can keep and still let a disputed punch be reviewed within the same term.

7. Your rights

As a staff member you can:

  • Ask the school admin to view, correct or delete the personal data we hold about you.
  • Disconnect your Telegram handle at any time (this stops future Telegram alerts from being sent to you).
  • Stop using the App at any time; this does not affect the school's obligation to retain historical attendance and leave records under applicable law.
  • Ask for your data to be deleted. Section 8 below says exactly what can and cannot be deleted, and how to ask.

For any of the above, write to gurukulamarpatan@gmail.com or contact the school office at the address below. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Deleting your data

You can ask for the personal data the App holds about you to be deleted, and ask what is held, without giving a reason. Write to gurukulamarpatan@gmail.com from the email address registered to your staff account, with the subject "Data deletion request". The school will confirm receipt and act within 30 days.

  • Deleted on request: your punch photographs, the locations recorded for your flagged punches, your device identifier, and the account details (name, email, phone number) held for you.
  • Not deleted, and why: your attendance and leave records are the school's payroll and statutory record, and the App has no facility to remove them — the school is required to retain them under Indian labour and education record-keeping norms. If you want such a record corrected, the school will review it and correct it if it is wrong.
  • If you leave the school, the admin disables your account so it can no longer be used. Your punch photographs still expire on their own 90-day schedule.
  • Requests that concern only records the school must retain will be answered in writing, saying so and giving the reason.

Request deletion of your account and data →

9. Children's privacy

The App is not used by children. The only children's data present in the system is student names, classes and house membership — used solely to mark attendance and route alerts to the appropriate staff or parent. We do not knowingly collect any other information from children.

10. Security

  • All network traffic is encrypted with HTTPS / TLS.
  • Passwords are stored only as cryptographic hashes; one-way functions cannot be reversed.
  • Firestore security rules restrict reads and writes to authorised roles only.
  • Two-step account recovery is supported via a verified email link.
  • Source code is held in a private repository; production access is limited to the school admin.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date below will reflect the most recent change. Material changes (for example, a new category of data collected) will be communicated inside the App before they take effect.

12. Contact

Gurukul Academy Higher Secondary School

Satna Road, Village Gadauli, Amarpatan
District Maihar, Madhya Pradesh – 485775
India

Email: gurukulamarpatan@gmail.com
Phone: +91 83197 88245

Last updated: 24 September 2026.