privacy policy
Privacy policy
Version 1.0 · Effective 27 September 2026
Descant is a business name of Grounded Scribe Pty Ltd. This policy explains how we handle personal information in Descant and on descant.com.au, under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
At a glance
- Schools stay in control. We hold student information on each school’s behalf. The school decides what is recorded and who can see it. Students and families should contact their school first; we help the school respond.
- Kept in Australia. Student records, including spoken notes, are stored only in Australia (Sydney). Speech-to-text and AI drafting run in Australia.
- People decide. Our AI drafts notes for a person to check. It never makes diagnostic or disciplinary decisions, and information is never used to train AI models.
- What we never do. Sell personal information, use it for advertising, or put advertising trackers on our sites.
- When a school leaves. Its records are deleted within 90 days of its agreement ending, after a chance to export them.
Who we are
Grounded Scribe Pty Ltd (ABN 69 695 177 818) runs Descant, a student-support record for Australian schools. This policy covers school workspaces we host, whether at descant.com.au or groundedscribe.com addresses, and the descant.com.au website, including its enquiry and guide forms. Schools may also be bound by their state or territory’s privacy laws; where we hold information for a school, we help it meet those obligations.
What we collect
School staff
Account details for the staff who use Descant, such as name, work email and role.
Student information, held for the school
Depending on how a school uses Descant, this can include:
- student details, such as name, date of birth, year level and school identifiers, entered by staff or synchronised from the school’s student system if the school chooses;
- referrals, support episodes, case notes and support plans;
- observations that educators and other professionals send through secure links;
- evidence of adjustments for the NCCD, and related documents;
- wellbeing check-ins that students complete through a secure link from their school.
Some of this is sensitive information, including health and disability information.
Enquiries and guide requests
When you send an enquiry, we collect your name, email address, school or organisation, role and message, and anything else you choose to add, such as a phone number, your state and sector, team size, topics of interest and good times to call. When you ask for a guide, we collect your email address and, if you give them, your school and role. We use these details only to respond or send the guide, and we do not add you to a mailing list unless you ask.
14-day demos
When you ask for a demo, we email you a link to confirm your address; if you don’t confirm within 48 hours, the request is deleted. Once you confirm and we have reviewed your request, you get access for 14 days to a demo school filled with made-up students and staff. We keep your name, work email, school and role, and which demo school you used, so we can follow up. Please don’t enter real student information in a demo. When the 14 days end, your access stops and the demo school is reset: everything you added to it, including uploaded files, is deleted. A demo-only account is closed at the same time and permanently deleted 30 days later. We keep a record of your demo for 90 days after it ends, so each person gets one demo.
Calls to our phone line
Descant’s phone line is answered by an AI receptionist, which tells callers it keeps a written record of the call. We keep the caller’s number, the transcript and a summary so the team can reply, and we ask callers not to share student details.
What we do not collect
Biometric data, or location data.
Schools stay in control
A school uses Descant under a written agreement with us, accepted by someone authorised to act for the school. We hold student information on the school’s behalf and handle it only on the school’s instructions: the school decides what is recorded, who can see it and how long it is kept. Schools are responsible for telling students and families how they handle student information, usually through their own collection notice. Requests to access or correct a student’s record should go to the school first; we will help the school respond.
How we use it
We use student information only to provide Descant to the school that holds it, under that school’s authority. We do not use it for research, benchmarking or marketing, including in de-identified form. It is never sold and never used to train AI models. We use staff details to run accounts and support, and enquiry details only to reply.
AI and automated steps
- Drafted notes and summaries. Our AI drafts notes and NCCD evidence summaries from what a person said or wrote. A person reviews every draft before it is used.
- Check-in flags. A student’s wellbeing check-in can be flagged automatically for a staff member to review, for example when the student asks to talk to someone. The flag only brings the check-in to a staff member’s attention; a person decides what happens next.
Where it is kept
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Student records, case notes and reports | Australia (Sydney) |
| Speech-to-text for spoken notes | Australia; the audio is not stored |
| AI drafting | Australia; nothing is kept by the AI service |
| Student roll sync (optional, through Wonde) | Australia (Wonde, the school’s own provider, hosts Australian schools’ data in Australia) |
| Calls to the Descant phone line | United States while the call is live (speech recognition and voice); the call record and summary are stored in Australia. Please don’t share student details on a call |
| Enquiry and service emails | United States (email service provider); no student information |
| Website analytics (public pages only) | United States (analytics provider) |
| Card payments, if a school pays by card | United States (payment processor; we do not store card details) |
Overseas disclosure
Descant student information, including the audio of spoken notes, is stored only in Australia. Descant sends no text messages, and its emails contain no student information. The main country outside Australia to which we disclose personal information is the United States, for email delivery, payment processing, website analytics and the live speech of calls to the Descant phone line. That is why our phone line asks callers not to share any student’s name or details. We take reasonable steps to make sure these providers handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles, including contractual protections and checking their security practices. A list of our service providers is available to schools on request.
How we protect it
- Encryption in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256); passwords are hashed and never stored in plain text.
- Each school’s data is separated at the database level, and access fails closed.
- Access follows each staff member’s role, and every access to a student record is logged.
How long we keep it
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Audio of spoken notes | Deleted once it is transcribed |
| School records | The term of the school’s agreement, as the school directs; deleted within 90 days after it ends, after any export the school asks for |
| 14-day demos | Anything you add to a demo school is deleted when your 14 days end; your enquiry details are kept as long as needed to follow up, and deleted on request |
| Phone line calls | Transcripts deleted automatically after 30 days; the summary is kept as long as needed to respond, and deleted on request |
| Enquiries and guide requests | As long as needed to respond and follow up; deleted on request |
| Staff account information | While the account is active |
| Audit logs | 7 years (legal compliance) |
When a school’s agreement ends, including a trial that does not continue, the school can ask for an export of its records. We then permanently delete them within 90 days and confirm the deletion to the school in writing. Records under a legal hold the school has told us about are kept until the hold is lifted.
Children’s privacy
Descant holds information about students, most of whom are under 18. Students do not have Descant accounts or passwords. Where a school uses wellbeing check-ins, a student completes a short check-in through a secure link from their school, and it goes only to the school’s authorised support staff. We do not use student information for advertising or marketing, we do not collect a student’s location, and we do not build profiles of students for any purpose other than the school’s support of that student. Australia’s Children’s Online Privacy Code is due to be registered by 10 December 2026; we will update this policy, and how Descant handles children’s information, to meet it.
Data breaches
If a data breach is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify affected users without undue delay and no later than 72 hours after becoming aware of it; where it involves a school’s Descant records, we notify the school within the same 72 hours. We notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, contain and fix the breach, and provide a written report once our assessment is complete.
Your rights and complaints
You can ask to see or correct the personal information we hold about you, ask for it to be deleted (subject to legal requirements) and ask for a copy in a common format. If your question is about a student’s record, contact the school first. If you believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles, contact us and we will investigate and respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.
Contact us
Privacy Officer, Grounded Scribe Pty Ltd (trading as Descant), Office 4164, Ground Floor, 470 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne VIC 3004. Email [email protected]. We acknowledge privacy requests within 3 business days and respond within 30 days.
Changes to this policy
We review this policy at least once a year and will tell schools about material changes by email or through Descant. The date at the top shows when it last changed.
Version history
- Version 1.0 (27 September 2026). Descant’s own privacy policy. It takes over the Descant sections of the Grounded Scribe Pty Ltd privacy policy, with the same commitments. Grounded Scribe’s clinical services keep their own policy.