SchoolOS is software your school licences — not a service that keeps your records. Every student file, mark, attendance record, medical note, message and report belongs to the school before, during and after the subscription.
“The school is the sole owner, controller and custodian of every record in its SchoolOS account. SchoolOS holds that data only as the school's service provider, acts only on the school's written instructions, acquires no ownership, licence or other right to it, and returns or securely destroys it on request.”
Plain-language summary of the Data Ownership clause in the SchoolOS Master Services Agreement and Data Processing Addendum.These are contractual commitments, not marketing lines. Each one is written into the Master Services Agreement and the Data Processing Addendum.
The school — not SchoolOS, not the vendor, not individual staff — is the sole owner of its account and of every record in it. Ownership does not transfer on signup, on renewal, or on termination.
SchoolOS is a processor / agent only. We process data solely to deliver the service the school asked for, under documented instructions, and for no other purpose.
School data is never sold, rented, licensed, bartered, used for advertising, used to build profiles of students or staff, or used to train any AI model.
Administrators can export the full account at any time in open formats (CSV, JSON, SQL dump plus the original uploaded files). No export fee, no lock-in, no “contact sales”.
On request or at end of term: data returned, then deleted within 30 days from live systems and 90 days from encrypted backups, with a written Certificate of Destruction.
Primary hosting and encrypted backups sit in a Toronto, Ontario data centre. Any sub-processor outside Canada requires the school's prior written consent and a transfer assessment.
The school can inspect audit logs of every administrative action, receive a copy of our security documentation, and require an annual independent security assessment.
No automated decision-making, no generative-AI feature, and no model training touches student data unless the school explicitly switches that feature on and documents the purpose.
The legal wording matters at procurement. This table shows exactly which role each party plays under Canadian and Ontario law.
| Role | The school | SchoolOS |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Sole owner of all account data and all copies of it | No ownership interest, at any time |
| PIPEDA (private schools) | Organization that determines the purposes of processing | Service provider processing on instructions |
| MFIPPA (Ontario school boards) | Institution with custody or control of the records | Service provider; no use, retention or disclosure except as authorized |
| FIPPA (colleges & universities) | Institution with custody or control of the records | Service provider under the institution's directions |
| PHIPA (health records in the SIS) | Health information custodian where applicable | Agent of the custodian; health information network provider where applicable |
| Access & correction requests | Decides and responds to students, parents and requesters | Supports with export and logs within 5 business days |
| Breach notification | Notifies the IPC / OPC and affected individuals | Notifies the school without undue delay and within 24 hours of confirmation |
| Retention schedule | Sets retention under its own records schedule/by-law | Retains only as instructed; deletes on instruction |
“Own” in plain language, “control” in law. Canadian privacy law protects personal information rather than treating it as property. When we say the school owns its data, we mean the school is the sole decision-maker and beneficiary of it — the full legal position is that the school is the controller / the institution with custody or control (or the health information custodian), and SchoolOS has no independent right to use any of it.
SchoolOS is designed to support the obligations that apply to Ontario schools, boards, colleges and universities. Each row lists what the law requires and how the platform and contract meet it.
| Law | Who it applies to | What SchoolOS does |
|---|---|---|
| PIPEDA | Private schools and any organization collecting personal information in commercial activity | Ten fair-information principles applied by contract: accountability, identified purpose, consent, limited collection, limited use, accuracy, safeguards, openness, individual access, and a named privacy officer. Breach reporting support under the Breach of Security Safeguards Regulations. |
| MFIPPA R.S.O. 1990, c. M.56 |
Ontario district school boards, Catholic boards and school authorities | Records remain under the board's custody or control. SchoolOS does not use, retain or disclose records except as the board authorizes, and supports FOI requests, records schedules and routine-disclosure rules. Board may direct destruction at any time. |
| FIPPA R.S.O. 1990, c. F.31 |
Ontario colleges, universities and other public institutions | Same custody-or-control model, plus support for the institution's privacy impact assessments, records-of-use reporting and access requests. |
| PHIPA S.O. 2004, c. 3, Sched. A |
Any school record that is personal health information — medical alerts, allergy plans, special-education health plans, counselling notes | SchoolOS acts as the custodian's agent with restricted, logged access; supports lockbox requests, consent directives and the custodian's 72-hour breach obligations; health fields can be restricted to named roles. |
| Bill 194, 2024 Strengthening Cyber Security and Building Trust in the Public Sector Act |
Ontario public-sector bodies (FIPPA/MFIPPA institutions) | Supports the new public-sector duties as they come into force: privacy impact assessments, public disclosure of AI use, stronger protection for children's data, and cybersecurity incident reporting. No AI runs on school data by default. |
| CASL S.C. 2010, c. 23 |
Commercial electronic messages sent from the platform | Express or implied consent is recorded per recipient, every bulk message carries an unsubscribe mechanism and sender identification, and consent records are exportable. |
| Ontario Consumer Protection Act, 2002 | Where the subscription is a consumer agreement | Clear price, term, renewal and cancellation terms before purchase; no auto-renewal trap; refund and termination rights preserved. |
| AODA, 2005 | Ontario organizations providing goods and services | Exports and reports are delivered in accessible, machine-readable formats so the school can meet its own accommodation and information obligations. |
If the school is outside Ontario, the same commitments apply with the local law mapped in the Data Processing Addendum (for example GDPR for EU/UK schools, or Quebec's Law 25). Nothing in the agreement reduces a school's statutory rights.
Ownership is only meaningful if you can prove it at every stage. This is the lifecycle the contract guarantees.
Copy this into an RFP response, a privacy impact assessment or a board report.
Contracting party: SchoolOS, 219 Birmingham St, Etobicoke, Ontario M8V 0J6, Canada — schoolos@gmail.com. This page describes the SchoolOS contractual commitments. The binding terms are in the signed Master Services Agreement and Data Processing Addendum, which we recommend your board review with Ontario counsel. This page is not itself the contract and is not legal advice.
We will send the Data Ownership clause, the Data Processing Addendum and our security summary for your privacy officer, FOI coordinator or board counsel to review — before any purchase decision.
Privacy and data-ownership questions: schoolos@gmail.com · SchoolOS, 219 Birmingham St, Etobicoke, Ontario M8V 0J6, Canada