1. Who we are
Excela (“we”, “us”, “our”) provides online preparation tools for the NSW Selective Schools Test. This policy explains how we handle information collected through our website at excela.com.au and associated services.
2. Information we collect
2.1 Account registration
When you create a student account we collect your name, email address, mobile number, year level, and a password. Staff accounts additionally require multi-factor authentication setup.
2.2 Free Diagnostic Test
Our free diagnostic test at /sample collects:
- Child’s first name (optional) — used only to personalise the results report.
- Test responses and scores — the answers your child selects, the section scores, and the overall estimated band. These are stored to generate the results report.
- Parent’s email address — collected after the test is completed, only if you choose to unlock the full breakdown. Your email is used to send the diagnostic results and a short series of follow-up emails about Excela.
- Consent flag — we record whether you consented to receive the report and follow-up communications.
- UTM / attribution parameters — if you arrive via a marketing link we may store the campaign source to measure advertising effectiveness. No personally identifiable information is included in these parameters.
The diagnostic test does not require an account. Diagnostic data is stored separately from student learning records and is not linked to any student account unless you later sign up with the same email address.
2.3 Learning activity
When signed-in students use the platform we collect practice question responses, mock-exam results, writing submissions, and study-plan progress to power adaptive learning and analytics.
2.4 Payment information
Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not store credit-card numbers. Stripe’s privacy policy governs payment data.
3. How we use your information
- Service delivery — generating results, powering adaptive practice, providing AI tutoring, and producing analytics reports.
- Communications — sending diagnostic results, nurture emails, weekly progress reports, and essential account notifications. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time.
- Product improvement — aggregated, de-identified diagnostic and practice data may be used to calibrate difficulty bands and improve question quality.
4. Data sharing
We do not sell personal information. Data may be shared with:
- Postmark (email delivery), Stripe (payments),Cloudflare R2 (asset storage), Vercel (hosting), and Neon (database) — each acting as a data processor under contract.
- OpenAI / Google — for AI tutoring and question generation. The diagnostic test does not send any student free-text to these providers.
5. Data retention
- Diagnostic attempts are retained for up to 24 months to allow band-calibration analysis, then de-identified or deleted.
- Student accounts are retained while the account is active. You can request deletion by contacting us.
- Nurture emails — the email sequence ends after 6 messages (approximately 14 days). You can unsubscribe at any time.
6. Your rights
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information at any time by emailing hello@excela.com.au. We will respond within 30 days.
7. Children’s privacy
Our diagnostic test is designed to be completed by children under parental supervision. We collect the minimum information necessary to generate a meaningful result. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children without parental consent.
8. Security
Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Access to production databases is restricted and audited. Staff accounts require multi-factor authentication.
9. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via email or a notice on our website.
10. Contact
For privacy enquiries, contact us at hello@excela.com.au.