Privacy Policy

The short version

We are parents, not marketers. Here is the whole thing in plain language:

You do not need an account. There is nothing to sign up for, and we never ask for your name, your address, or your child's details.
We do not sell your data. Not to schools, not to advertisers, not to anyone.
We count visits, not people. We use Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Cloudflare Web Analytics to see which pages are useful, where the site is confusing and how quickly pages load. They tell us things like "300 people looked at primary schools in Parramatta this week", not who those people are. Cloudflare's version sets no cookies at all.
Your saved schools live in a cookie on your device. That is the one cookie here that exists to make a feature work. When you star a school, its identifier is added to a small cookie in your own browser, and that cookie is what makes the star stay filled in, what counts your saved schools, and what the "Saved schools" page reads to show your list. Like every cookie, it is sent to our server with each page you request, but we do not store it, we do not attach a name or an account to it, and it says nothing about you beyond which schools you starred. Unstar them, or clear your browser data, and it is gone.
The other cookies are analytics and security. Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity each set a couple to tell one visit from another, and Cloudflare sets one so it does not have to keep re-checking that you are a real person rather than a bot. Section 2 below names every one of them.
Microsoft Clarity is the one to know about. It is free because it is Microsoft's, and loading it also sets a Microsoft identifier on clarity.ms and bing.com that Microsoft may use for its own purposes, including advertising personalisation elsewhere. We get no advertising from it and we place no ads on this site, but we would rather you heard that from us than found it in your cookie list.
Some parts of the page come from other companies. The map uses map tiles from CARTO, and the address box on the map page uses Google. When you use those features, those companies see your device's IP address and, for the address box, what you type into it.
If you email us, we keep the email. That is how we answer you and fix what you reported.

If you would rather not be counted at all, a tracker-blocking browser or extension will stop Google Analytics, Clarity and Cloudflare Web Analytics from loading, and the site will still work normally. Your saved schools will keep working, because that cookie is not a tracker.

Questions? info@schoolatlas.com.au

The formal version

Last updated: 27 September 2026

This policy explains how SchoolAtlas ("we", "us") handles information when you use schoolatlas.com.au. We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

1. Information we collect

Information you give us. SchoolAtlas has no accounts, no logins and no sign-up forms. The only information you actively provide is what you choose to put in an email to us, and what you type into the search and address fields (see sections 2 and 3).

Information collected automatically. When you load a page, our hosting provider and content delivery network record standard server log data: your IP address, the date and time, the URL requested, the HTTP status, your browser's user-agent string and, where sent, the referring page. These logs are used to operate the site, to diagnose faults and to detect abuse.

Search terms and filters. Search keywords, filter selections and map coordinates travel in the page URL, so they appear in server logs and in analytics page-view records. Please do not put personal information into the search box.

2. Cookies and local storage

This is the complete list, as observed on the live site. We do not use a cookie banner: none of these cookies is used for advertising by us, and Australian privacy law asks us to tell you what we collect rather than to interrupt you for consent. If you would rather not have them, every browser can block or delete them, and the site keeps working.

Set by us, for the site to work

sa_bookmarks — the cookie behind the saved schools feature. When you star a school, its national identifier (AGE ID) is appended to this cookie, in the order you added it; unstarring removes it. The cookie is what the site reads to know which stars to fill in on search and map results, what number to show in the saved-schools counter, and which schools to list on the "Saved schools" page. Because it is a cookie rather than browser-only storage, your browser sends it to our server with every request to this site; the server uses it solely to render that page for that one request, and does not save it, log it as a profile, or associate it with your identity. It holds nothing but school identifiers, is capped at 100 schools, expires one year after your last change, and is set with SameSite=Lax plus, over HTTPS, Secure. Removing all your saved schools deletes the cookie outright. Your list is tied to that browser on that device, so it will not follow you to another device, and it will not survive clearing your cookies.
theme — not a cookie but a local-storage entry, remembering whether you chose the light, dark or system appearance. It never leaves your browser.

Set by analytics, on our domain

_ga and _ga_88PW1CTRHY — Google Analytics. A randomly generated identifier that lets Google tell a returning browser from a new one, so a person who reads four pages is counted as one visit rather than four. Expires about two years after your last visit.
_clck and _clsk — Microsoft Clarity. The first is a per-browser identifier lasting about a year; the second stitches the pages of a single session together and expires the next day.

Set by Cloudflare, for security

cf_clearance — records that your browser has passed Cloudflare's automated bot check, so it is not challenged again on every page. It is HttpOnly and Secure, meaning our own scripts cannot read it, and it holds a security token rather than anything about you. Depending on how Cloudflare's protection responds to traffic, it may also set short-lived security cookies of its own, such as __cf_bm (a bot-management cookie lasting about 30 minutes). These are set by Cloudflare as part of protecting the site, not by us, and we cannot read them.

Cloudflare Web Analytics (see section 3) sets no cookies and uses no local storage, so it does not appear in this list.

Set on other companies' domains

Loading Microsoft Clarity also causes Microsoft to set identifiers on its own domains, outside our control and under Microsoft's privacy statement: MUID on clarity.ms and bing.com, CLID on www.clarity.ms, and MR and SRM_B on c.bing.com. MUID is Microsoft's cross-site user identifier, which Microsoft also uses for advertising personalisation on its own services. We receive none of that data and run no advertising here, but the cookies are a real consequence of us using Clarity and you are entitled to know.

We set no advertising or ad-retargeting cookies of our own, and there are no ad-network tracking pixels on this site.

Most browsers let you block or delete cookies and site data, and tracker-blocking extensions will stop the analytics scripts loading at all. Neither will break SchoolAtlas, though your saved schools and appearance preference will not persist if you block everything.

3. Third-party services

The site loads components from the following providers. Each is listed with what we use it for and what it can see.

Google Analytics 4 (Google LLC) — aggregate usage statistics, including which language version you are reading. Sees your IP address (truncated by Google), the pages you view, your device and browser, and your approximate location.
Microsoft Clarity (Microsoft Corporation) — heatmaps and session replays that show us where the layout confuses people. Sees your interactions with the page: clicks, scrolling, device and browser, and your IP address.
Google Maps JavaScript API and Places Autocomplete (Google LLC) — the optional address-lookup box on the map page. Sees the address text you type into that box, and your IP address.
CARTO — the background map imagery. Sees your IP address and which map tiles you requested.
Cloudflare — content delivery, caching and protection against abuse. Sees request metadata and your IP address, and sets the security cookies described in section 2. Cloudflare sits in front of every request to this site, so it also handles the network error reports your browser sends when a page fails to load.
Cloudflare Web Analytics (Cloudflare, Inc.) — aggregate visit counts and real-world page-speed measurements, such as how long the main content takes to appear and how quickly the page responds to a tap. A small script from static.cloudflareinsights.com sends one report to Cloudflare as each page loads. Sees the page address, the referring page, your browser and device type, those timings, and your IP address, from which Cloudflare derives your country. It sets no cookies and, according to Cloudflare, does not fingerprint your browser or track you across other websites.

Session replays captured by Clarity record interactions with the page, not the contents of any other tab, application or file on your device. SchoolAtlas has no fields that take sensitive personal information.

The "compare with an AI assistant" buttons are ordinary outbound links. Nothing is sent anywhere until you click one; if you do, the schools you selected are carried to that provider in the link and their privacy policy then applies.

4. How we use information

We use the information described above only to operate and improve SchoolAtlas: to serve pages, to understand which content parents find useful, to remember the schools you have starred so your shortlist is still there on your next visit, to fix errors and broken pages, to protect the site from abuse, and to reply to your correspondence. We do not build profiles of individuals, and we do not use your information to make decisions about you.

5. Disclosure

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. We do not disclose it to schools or to government agencies for their own use. Information is shared only with the service providers listed in section 3 in order to run the site, or where we are required to do so by Australian law.

Those providers are large international companies and may store or process data overseas, including in the United States. By using the site you accept that this is how the underlying services work.

6. Advertising and sponsorship

The site currently carries no advertising. We may introduce sponsored content in future to help cover our running costs. If we do, it will be clearly labelled, it will not alter any school's factual data or its position in search results, and this policy will be updated before we introduce any advertising technology of our own that tracks you across other websites.

7. Retention

Server logs and analytics data are kept only as long as they are useful for the purposes above, and are governed by the retention settings of the providers concerned. Email you send us is kept while the matter is open and for a reasonable period afterwards so we have a record of corrections we made and why.

8. Security

We serve the site over HTTPS and keep our software patched. No website can promise perfect security, but because we hold so little, there is very little about you to lose.

9. Children

SchoolAtlas is written for parents and carers, not for children, and it is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child.

10. Your rights

You may ask us what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. In most cases the honest answer will be that we hold nothing that identifies you, aside from any email correspondence. To make a request, or to complain about how we have handled your information, email info@schoolatlas.com.au. We will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

11. Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practices change, and the "last updated" date above will change with it. Material changes will be summarised in the short version at the top so you do not have to re-read the whole thing.

12. Contact

SchoolAtlas — email info@schoolatlas.com.au. Site details and the operating entity are shown in the footer of every page.