Privacy policy.

“Personal Data” means any data about an individual who is identifiable by or in relation to such data.

“Data Principal” means the individual to whom the Personal Data relates — for example, a parent or guardian making an enquiry, a job applicant, or a student.

“Processing” means any operation performed on Personal Data, including collection, storage, use, sharing, disclosure, erasure and destruction.

“Consent” means a free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous indication of agreement, given by clear affirmative action, to the processing of Personal Data for a specified purpose.

“Child” means an individual who has not completed eighteen years of age, as defined in the DPDP Act.

“Service Provider” means a third party that processes Personal Data on the School's behalf under a written contract, such as a hosting, storage or security provider.

Information you give us voluntarily. We collect only the data you choose to provide through the Website. The forms on the Website collect the following:

• Admission enquiry form — student's name, parent's or guardian's name, telephone number, email address (optional), class for which admission is sought, boarding preference (optional), and your consent to receive SMS, email and WhatsApp communications about the enquiry.
• Online admission application form — the student's name, date of birth, nationality, gender, category, whether the student is differently abled (with details, if you choose to give them), Aadhaar number (optional), mother tongue, blood group (optional), religion (optional), whether the student is an only child, any chronic illness or allergies (optional), current and permanent address, siblings studying at the School, previous school, whether the student will be a day scholar or live in the hostel, and for day scholars the mode of transport and bus pick-up point; the name, educational qualification, occupation, mobile number and email address of each parent and of a local guardian where applicable, annual family income in bands (optional), and whether a parent works at the School; how you heard about the School; the student's photograph and a copy of the birth certificate you upload; and your declaration that the date of birth matches the birth certificate. The admissions office may add its own notes to an application (for example test dates and interview remarks); these are internal records and are not shared outside the School.
• Careers application form — first and last name, email address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, qualification, post applied for, last salary drawn (optional), salary expectations (optional), and the curriculum vitae or résumé you upload (PDF, DOC or DOCX, up to 10 MB).
• Direct communication — if you contact the School by telephone, email or WhatsApp using the details published on the Website, we receive your contact details and the content of your message.

Information collected automatically. When you visit the Website, our hosting and security infrastructure processes limited technical data needed to serve pages and keep the Website secure, including your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, device type and operating system, the pages requested, the date and time of the request, referring pages, and a country-level location derived from your IP address. We retain only the country code alongside a form submission; full IP addresses are not stored by the School in its own records.

Map and video requests. If you open the campus map or use its address search, the map services receive your request and IP address. Video testimonials load from YouTube only after you click the play button.

Cookies and local storage. The public Website sets no advertising or analytics cookies. A single authentication cookie is used only when School staff sign in to the password-protected administrative area; public visitors do not receive it. The blog's “clap” feature stores a counter in your browser's local storage, on your device only. See Clause 6.

What we do not collect. The Website does not process online payments and does not seek financial account details or biometric data. Apart from what the online admission application form asks for — the Aadhaar number, blood group, disability details and any chronic illness or allergies, and, optionally, religion and a band of annual family income — each of which is used only to process the admission and to prepare for the student, the Website does not seek government identifiers, health data or financial information. The optional questions can be left unanswered, or answered “Prefer not to say”, without any effect on the application. Please do not send such information through the Website's other forms.

We process Personal Data only for the purposes for which it was collected, namely:

• to receive, review and respond to admission enquiries, arrange campus visits and carry out the admission process;
• to assess job applications, evaluate suitability for the advertised post and contact applicants about recruitment;
• to communicate with you about your enquiry or application by telephone, email, SMS or WhatsApp, where you have given consent;
• to operate, maintain and secure the Website, prevent spam, abuse and automated misuse, and diagnose technical faults;
• to comply with applicable law, including CBSE and statutory record-keeping requirements, and to respond to lawful requests from courts, regulators and public authorities;
• to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We do not sell, rent or trade Personal Data, and we do not use it for behavioural advertising or for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time by writing to the Grievance Officer named in Clause 14. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal, and does not prevent processing that is required or permitted by law.

Where consent is not the basis, we process Personal Data for the legitimate uses permitted by the DPDP Act — for example, responding to a request you have made, processing applications for employment, protecting the Website against security threats, and complying with legal obligations.

We share Personal Data only as described below and only to the extent necessary:

• Service providers — Cloudflare, Inc. hosts the Website and provides the content delivery network, database, file storage and bot-protection (Turnstile) services on which it runs; Cloudflare processes data on our behalf under its terms of service and applicable data-processing terms.
• Map, video and social services — the interactive campus map uses map tiles and address search from OpenStreetMap, Esri, OpenTopoMap and Photon (Komoot); video testimonials are served by YouTube (Google) through its privacy-enhanced mode; social links open platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and YouTube. These providers receive your IP address and request data when the relevant content loads or you follow a link; their own privacy policies apply.
• Communication services — if you contact us on WhatsApp, your use of that service is governed by WhatsApp's and Meta's privacy policies.
• Legal and safety disclosures — we may disclose Personal Data where required by law or by an order of a court or government authority, or where necessary to protect the rights, safety and security of the School, its students, staff or the public.
• Reorganisation of the School — in the event of a merger, reorganisation or transfer of the School's operations to a successor entity, Personal Data may be transferred to that entity, subject to this Policy.

Service Providers are required to process Personal Data only on our instructions and to apply appropriate security safeguards.

The Website contains links to websites and services that the School does not control — including social media pages, WhatsApp, Google Maps and the external JSAT registration portal. This Policy does not apply to those websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

When you follow an external link, or when you choose to play a video or load map content, the third party may collect data about you under its own policy. The School is not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties.

Cookies are small text files stored by your browser. The public pages of the Website do not set advertising or analytics cookies and do not track visitors across websites.

The following storage is used:

• Staff session cookie — an essential, HTTP-only cookie named “jps_admin” is set only when authorised School staff sign in to the administrative area. It expires after seven (7) days or when the staff member signs out.
• Local storage — the blog's “clap” counter stores a value in your browser's local storage so the count is remembered on your device. It is not transmitted to the School.
• Third-party content — YouTube loads in privacy-enhanced mode only after you click play; map tiles and address search load only when you open the campus map or use its search box. These services may set their own cookies or equivalent identifiers at that point.

You can block or delete cookies and local storage through your browser settings. Blocking the essential staff cookie may prevent staff sign-in, but it does not affect public browsing. Because we do not use advertising cookies, no cookie consent banner is shown on the public Website.

The Website is intended for use by parents, guardians and adults. Admission enquiries concerning a child must be submitted by the child's parent or lawful guardian, which is why the enquiry form requires the parent's or guardian's name.

As required by the DPDP Act, we process a child's Personal Data only with the verifiable consent of a parent or lawful guardian, and only for purposes that are lawful, safe and in the child's best interest. We do not undertake tracking or behavioural monitoring of children, and we do not direct targeted advertising at children.

If you believe that a child has provided Personal Data to the Website without a parent's or guardian's consent, please contact the Grievance Officer named in Clause 14. On verification, we will erase the data without undue delay.

Personal data of enrolled students is maintained in the School's academic and administrative records in accordance with CBSE requirements, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and the School's internal policies. Those records receive the security safeguards described in Clause 9; requests concerning them may be made by the student, or by the parent or guardian of a student who is a child.

We retain Personal Data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Policy, or for the period required or permitted by law, and erase it thereafter.

In practice:

• Admission enquiries are retained for the admission cycle to which they relate and for a reasonable follow-up period thereafter (ordinarily not more than twenty-four (24) months from the last contact), after which they are deleted.
• Online admission applications, with the photograph and birth certificate uploaded with them, are retained for the admission cycle to which they relate. An application that leads to admission becomes part of the student's records; one that does not is ordinarily deleted within twenty-four (24) months of the decision.
• Job applications and résumés are retained for the recruitment process and for a reasonable period thereafter (ordinarily not more than twelve (12) months), unless the applicant is engaged or consents to longer retention.
• Website server and security logs are retained by our hosting provider for short, security-appropriate periods and are not used by the School to identify visitors.
• Records of enrolled students are retained for the periods required by CBSE and applicable education law, and are governed by the School's academic records policy rather than this Website Policy.

Where you withdraw consent, we will stop processing and erase the relevant Personal Data unless its retention is required or authorised by law, or necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

We take reasonable security safeguards to protect Personal Data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or destruction. These include encryption of data in transit using HTTPS/TLS, hosting on Cloudflare's secured network, access controls that limit Personal Data to authorised staff on a need-to-know basis, a password-protected administrative area, bot protection on public forms, and periodic review of access.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. While we work to protect Personal Data, we cannot guarantee absolute security. Where a personal data breach occurs, we will notify the Data Protection Board of India and affected Data Principals as required by the DPDP Act and the rules thereunder.

The administrative area of the Website is restricted to authorised School staff and is not intended for use by members of the public.

Subject to the DPDP Act, you have the following rights in relation to your Personal Data:

• Right to access — to obtain a summary of the Personal Data we process about you and the identities of the parties with whom it has been shared.
• Right to correction and erasure — to request correction of inaccurate or misleading data, completion of incomplete data, and erasure of data that is no longer necessary for its purpose.
• Right to withdraw consent — to withdraw consent at any time, with effect from the date of withdrawal.
• Right to grievance redressal — to have your complaint addressed by the School before approaching the Data Protection Board of India.
• Right to nominate — to nominate another individual to exercise your rights in the event of your death or incapacity.

A parent or lawful guardian may exercise these rights on behalf of a child. To make a request, write to the Grievance Officer named in Clause 14 with sufficient details to identify you and your request. We may ask for proof of identity to protect Personal Data from unauthorised disclosure. We will respond within a reasonable period and within the timelines prescribed by applicable law.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Board of India in the manner prescribed under the DPDP Act.

The Website is operated from India for a school community in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, and Personal Data is processed and stored in India, except for processing carried out by the service providers listed in Clause 4, which may operate globally.

If the data protection law of your country (for example, the EU General Data Protection Regulation or the UK GDPR) applies to you, you may also have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability and the right to withdraw consent, as well as the right to complain to your local supervisory authority. To exercise these rights, contact the Grievance Officer named in Clause 14. Where such law requires a lawful basis for processing, we rely on your consent, our legitimate interests in operating the School and the Website, and compliance with legal obligations.

We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law, the Website or the School's practices. The revised Policy will be published on this page with a new “Last updated” date, and material changes will be brought to your attention on the Website.

Continuing to use the Website, or providing Personal Data after an update, constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy to the extent consent is the applicable basis; where the law requires fresh consent, we will obtain it.

This Policy and any dispute arising out of or in connection with it are governed by the laws of India. Subject to the jurisdiction of the Data Protection Board of India under the DPDP Act, the courts at Khurda/Bhubaneswar, Odisha shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from this Policy or the processing of Personal Data.

For any question, request or complaint about this Policy or the processing of Personal Data — including to access, correct or erase your data, or to withdraw consent — please contact the Grievance Officer (Data Protection) at the address below. Please include enough detail for us to identify you and understand your request. We may ask for proof of identity before acting, to prevent unauthorised disclosure.