Privacy policy

Rowsta is software that organizations, such as schools, creches and residential estates, use to run their work and to serve their people. Most information in Rowsta is entered by, or for, one of those organizations.

For your Rowsta login and for rowsta.com, Rowsta Technologies Ltd is the data controller. For the records an organization keeps about its own people (for example a school’s pupil records or an estate’s resident and billing records), the organization decides what is kept and why, and Rowsta processes that information for it, on its instructions. For those records, contact the organization first; we will help it answer you.

• Account details: your name, email address, phone number, the organization you belong to and your role there (parent, resident, student, staff), and your password, stored only as a secure hash.
• What you or your organization add: broadcasts and messages, maintenance requests and their photos, visitor passes (a visitor’s name and phone number), homework and class posts, photos you choose to attach, and documents.
• Children’s information, entered by their school or creche: name, class, attendance, homework, results and report cards, daily care notes (meals, naps, mood, health notes and medicine given), photos, and who may collect them.
• Money records kept by your organization: fees, rent and service charges, payments and receipts. We never collect card numbers; online payments, when an organization turns them on, are handled by the payment provider.
• Technical information: the app version, the type of phone (iPhone or Android), a notification token so we can send notifications to your phone, and server logs (IP address, time, and the page or action) kept for security.

We do not collect your location or your contacts, and we do not read your photos: the app opens your camera or photos only when you choose to take or attach a picture.

• To provide the service your organization uses Rowsta for, and that you signed in for: showing you broadcasts, bills, receipts, your child’s day and school work, visitor passes, and the rest of the app.
• To send you the notifications, emails and text messages that your organization’s use of Rowsta calls for (for example a new broadcast, a fee reminder or a pickup).
• To keep Rowsta secure: signing you in, preventing misuse, and investigating problems.
• To meet legal duties, such as keeping financial records.

Our legal basis is the contract with you or your organization, our legitimate interest in running a secure service, your organization’s legal duties, and, where the law asks for it, consent. A school or creche is responsible for having the right to enter a child’s information, usually with a parent’s or guardian’s agreement.

We do not sell personal information, we do not show ads, and we do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites. Rowsta has no advertising or analytics trackers.

When an organization signs up, we note how it found Rowsta (for example a link it clicked or a partner code). We don’t use tracking cookies.

Your information is seen only inside your own organization, by the people whose role needs it: for example a child’s teachers and the school office, or an estate’s managers and guards. A parent sees only their own children; a resident sees only their own home and bills. Another organization on Rowsta cannot see it.

Rowsta staff look at an organization’s information only to provide support, fix a problem or keep the service secure.

We use these service providers to run Rowsta. Each one handles information only to provide its service to us:

• Railway: hosting and database (United States).
• Cloudflare R2: copies of our backups, encrypted at rest.
• Resend: sending email.
• Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification service: delivering notifications to phones.
• An SMS provider: text messages, only when your organization uses them.
• A payment provider such as Paystack: only when your organization turns on online payments.

We share information with authorities only when the law requires it.

Rowsta’s servers are in the United States, so your information is transferred outside Ghana and Nigeria. We use providers that protect it with contracts and security measures that meet the standards both countries’ laws require.

• Everything sent between the app or your browser and Rowsta is encrypted (HTTPS).
• Passwords are stored only as secure hashes; sign-in sessions on your phone are kept in its secure storage.
• Each organization’s information is kept separate, and access inside it follows each person’s role.
• Backups are made every night and kept in separate, access-controlled storage.

We keep your information while you have an account and your organization uses Rowsta. When an organization leaves Rowsta, we delete its information within 90 days, unless the law requires us to keep part of it.

Backups are kept for up to 12 months and then deleted, so information deleted from Rowsta can remain in a backup until that backup expires. We never restore deleted personal information except to recover from a failure.

Records an organization must keep by law, such as payments and receipts, stay with the organization for as long as it needs them.

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a copy, or to object to how it is used. You can also withdraw consent where we rely on it.

For an organization’s records, ask the organization, or write to support@rowsta.com and we will pass your request on and help. We answer within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission or to Ghana’s Data Protection Commission.

In the Rowsta app, open Account, then Delete my account. This deletes your login and replaces your name and contact details in your organization’s records. Records the organization must keep, such as payments and receipts, stay, without your name. You can also ask us on the web: rowsta.com/delete-account.

The Rowsta app is for adults: parents, residents and staff. Information about children is entered by their school or creche and shown to the child’s own parents or guardians and to the staff who look after the child.

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell you in the app or by email before the change takes effect.

Rowsta Technologies Ltd. Email support@rowsta.com.