Privacy policy · Frankie

Who we are

Frankie is run by FRANKIE GROUP PTY LTD (ACN 702 864 042), an Australian company. In this policy “we” and “us” means Frankie.

We follow the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988, and we treat your children’s health details as sensitive information under that Act.

If you register interest on this website

When you register interest at myfrankie.com.au, we keep what you give us: whether you’re a parent, on the P&C or school staff, your name, your email address, your school and, if you add it, its suburb.

Why: to tell you when Frankie can come to your school, and to see which schools are asking for it.
Where: stored in Amazon Web Services’ data centres in Sydney. When someone registers, we’re sent a short note saying only the role and the school, not your name or email.
Who sees it: the Frankie team. We don’t share it with your school or anyone else, and we don’t add you to a mailing list.
How long: until Frankie comes to your school and we’ve told you, or two years, whichever is sooner, unless you ask us to remove it earlier.
To remove it: email ferg@myfrankie.com.au and we’ll delete it.

The “tell your school” email is written in your browser and sent from your own email, if you choose to send it. We never see it, or the address you send it to, and never contact your school on your behalf. Your browser remembers that step until you close the tab, so you can switch to your email app and come back.

What we collect in the app

From you, when you use Frankie

Your account: your name as you want other parents to see it, your email address, and your password (stored only in a scrambled form that can’t be turned back into it).
Your children: each child’s name, class and, if you add it, birth year. If you choose, a PlayProfile: what they love, what helps them feel comfortable, and things that are good to know.
Your children’s care details, only if you add them: allergies, medications, a medical action plan and neurodiversity notes. These are health information, and we treat them as sensitive.
Your family profile, if you write one: things like who is in your household, languages, supervision and pick-up arrangements, and trusted adults.
What you do in Frankie: your messages and photos, plans you make and your replies to invitations, gift collections you join (the amount you pledge; Frankie doesn’t take payments), volunteer shifts, reports you make, people you block, and who you have shared things with.
Your devices: a name for each device you sign in on (such as “iPhone”), when it was last used, and a notification address so we can send it notifications.

From your school or P&C

Which class each child is in, from the class list your school provides, so your family can join the right class chat.
Whether someone holds a role on the P&C committee, as confirmed by the school.

What we don’t collect

We don’t ask for your phone number, home address (unless you add one to a plan you host), date of birth, payment details or government identifiers. Frankie doesn’t connect to your school’s systems and holds no school records such as attendance or reports. Photos have their location and other hidden details removed before we store them.

The app and this website contain no advertising or tracking software, and this website sets no cookies. The registration form is stored by Frankie itself, not by a form or mailing-list company. Your device’s internet address is used briefly, in memory, to stop people guessing passwords. It isn’t stored.

Why we use it

To run Frankie: your account, your class chat, your plans and messages, and the sharing you choose.
To send you what you’d expect: sign-up codes, notifications about messages and plans, and reminders for volunteer shifts.
To keep families safe: to review reports, stop misuse, and keep records of who has had access to children’s details.
To meet our legal obligations.

We never sell family information, and we never use what we know about your family or your child to target advertising.

Who sees it

Other families

Other parents in your child’s class see your name. Everything else, including your child’s profile, your family profile and your child’s care details, is seen only by the families you choose to share it with, and you can stop sharing at any time. Other families never see your email address.

Your P&C

The P&C sees the names of parents who sign up for a volunteer shift, and how many families have read a notice, never which ones. It never sees email addresses, children’s details or private chats.

The Frankie team

A small number of people at Frankie, each given access individually, review reports. They see the message or conversation that was reported and the messages around it, and nothing else. Nobody at Frankie reads messages otherwise.

Companies that help us run Frankie

Amazon Web Services (Sydney) stores everything in Frankie and sends our emails.
Apple, Google and Expo deliver notifications to phones (see below).
Google Workspace handles email you send to us.

Each may only use the information to provide its service to us.

When the law requires it

We will disclose information if the law requires us to, or where needed to protect someone from serious harm, including a child.

Where it is kept

Everything in Frankie, including backups and the keys that encrypt it, is stored in Amazon Web Services’ data centres in Sydney. It is not copied overseas for storage or backup.

Notifications go overseas in passing. To make a phone show a notification, its wording passes through Expo’s notification service and then Apple’s or Google’s, which are in the United States. A notification contains a person’s name and the name of a chat, plan or event, such as “Ava’s 7th: Ellen invited you”. It never contains message text, photos, care details or anything about a child. You can turn notifications off in your phone’s settings.

If you email us, that email is handled by Google Workspace, which may store it outside Australia.

How long we keep it

While your account is open, we keep what you have added, until you change or remove it.
When you close your account, your profiles, your children’s profiles and care details, your photos and your sign-ins are removed straight away. Messages you sent in other people’s chats stay, shown as from “Former member”, so those conversations still make sense.
Deleted photos are gone from our storage within 30 days.
Accounts that never confirm their email address are removed after a week.
Reports, and the records of who had access to a child’s details, are kept after an account closes, because they matter for children’s safety.
Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis, so anything removed is gone from them within weeks.

Your choices

See what we hold: in the app, go to Me, then Leave Frankie or get a copy of your information, then Open my copy.
Change it: edit your name, your profiles and your children’s details in the app at any time.
Stop sharing: switch off sharing with any family in the app. It takes effect immediately. Me, then Sharing history, shows who has had access.
Delete it: close your account from the same screen as your copy.
Anything else: email us. We will reply within 30 days, and sooner if we can.

Children

Frankie is for parents and carers. Children don’t have accounts and can’t be contacted through Frankie. Everything about a child in Frankie is added by their parent or carer, or comes from the school’s class list, and is shared only by that parent’s choice.

We take extra care with children’s information, and we will follow the Children’s Online Privacy Code when it takes effect.

Keeping it safe

Information is encrypted on its way to and from your phone and where it is stored, and care details are encrypted again with their own key. Our security and privacy page explains how, and what we haven’t done yet.

If your information is ever exposed, we will tell you and your school, and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner where the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires it.

Questions and complaints

Email ferg@myfrankie.com.au with “Privacy” in the subject. We will reply within 30 days.

If you’re not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will let you know before the change takes effect.

What we hold about your family, and why.