Privacy Policy
Last updated 30 Sep 2026 · Terms of Service
This policy explains what personal information Clefwise handles, why, who we share it with, and how you can see, correct or delete it. It covers the Clefwise website and iOS app. It doesn't cover what a teacher does with information outside Clefwise.
Text that changed on 30 Sep 2026 is highlighted.
1. Who we are and our role
Clefwise (“we”, “us”) is based in South Australia. Who runs it, and how to reach us, is in section 14 (Questions and complaints). We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988.
Teachers use Clefwise to run their studios. A teacher decides what to record about their students and families, and we hold and handle that information to run Clefwise for them. We're responsible for keeping it secure, and for how Clefwise itself uses it. The teacher is responsible for their own dealings with their families.
2. What we collect
About teachers and parents (account holders)
- Name, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash) and profile photo.
- For teachers: studio name, logo, teaching addresses and their map location, ABN, the payment details you choose to show on invoices (which can include a bank account), your Stripe account, your Clefwise plan, and expenses and receipt images.
- Your notification settings, and whether you have blocked anyone.
- When you created your account, and when you last signed in.
- A record of important changes made in a studio (for example, a lesson cancelled, an invoice sent or teaching hours changed): what changed, who made the change, and when.
- When a teacher signs up: the web page that led them to Clefwise, any campaign tag in that link (such as one from our social media posts), how they heard about Clefwise if they tell us, and whether they'd like tips and news from us.
About students and families (entered by teachers, and by parents)
- Students: name, preferred name, pronouns, date or month of birth, contact details, instruments, level, goals and the teacher's notes.
- Parents and guardians: name, email, phone, home address, relationship to the student, and the teacher's notes.
- Lessons: the schedule, attendance, cancellations, lesson credits, lesson notes, pieces, practice records and achievements, and the times a family prefers when a teacher runs a timetable round.
- Money: invoices, amounts, due dates and payment status. Card numbers go straight to Stripe and never reach Clefwise.
- Messages and announcements, and whether they, invoices and lesson notes have been opened.
- Records of which studio policies a parent accepted, and of when you accepted our Terms and Privacy Policy (see section 11).
About other people
- People who buy event tickets: name and email.
- Families invited to a trial lesson: the names and emails the teacher enters.
From your device
- IP address and account id, kept for up to an hour to limit abuse, and the cookies that keep you signed in. We don't use advertising or third-party tracking cookies.
- The devices you trust for two-step sign-in, with a description of each browser, and iPhone push tokens.
- Performance measurements: which screen loaded, with ids removed, how fast it loaded, your browser and device type, your connection type, and your account and studio. We use these only to make Clefwise faster, never to follow what you do.
- Our hosting provider keeps a short-lived log of requests to Clefwise, including IP address, to run and protect the service.
- Which setup and tour steps you've completed, so we don't repeat them, and a record of each setup step as you finish it. That record can include a name you typed, such as your first student's, and we keep it for 24 months to improve setup.
- When you ask for help or report something: your message, any screenshot you attach, the screen you were on, and your browser and screen size.
Sensitive information
We don't ask for health information or other sensitive information, and Clefwise has no field for it or for student photos. Notes and messages are free text, so don't record health or other sensitive details unless the lessons need them and the family has agreed.
3. How we collect it
- From you, when you sign up, use Clefwise or contact us.
- From teachers, when they add students and families, and from parents about their own children.
- Automatically from your device, as described above.
- From Stripe, whether a payment succeeded.
- From Google Calendar, if a teacher connects it.
4. How we use it
- To run Clefwise: schedules, bookings, lesson notes, invoices, payments and messages.
- To send emails and notifications: invoices and receipts, account emails, reminders, and teachers' announcements.
- To bill teachers for Clefwise plans.
- To keep Clefwise secure, prevent abuse and fraud, and respond to reports.
- To answer support requests, and to fix and improve Clefwise.
- To understand how teachers find Clefwise.
- To contact you about your own account, for example to welcome you or to offer help getting set up.
- To send teachers tips and news about Clefwise, only if they've asked for them. Every one of these emails has an unsubscribe link.
- To meet our legal obligations.
A small number of people at Clefwise can see account and studio records. They look only when it's needed to answer a support request, keep Clefwise secure (for example, to check that a new account is genuine), fix a problem, or help a teacher get set up.
We don't sell personal information, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models.
5. Automated decisions
Some parts of Clefwise use a computer program to make or suggest decisions:
- Lesson credits on cancellation. When a family cancels a lesson, Clefwise applies the teacher's cancellation policy to decide whether the family receives a lesson credit. It uses the lesson's time and how much notice was given. The teacher can change the result.
- Timetable rounds. Clefwise suggests a term's timetable. It uses the times each family prefers, lesson lengths and the teacher's hours. The teacher reviews the suggestion before anything is sent.
- Booking rules. Clefwise decides which times a family can book, using the teacher's hours, terms, closures and booking rules.
- Photo import. Our AI provider reads the lesson details from photos a teacher chooses. The teacher checks the results before saving them.
If you think an automated decision about you is wrong, ask your teacher, or contact us.
7. Information held outside Australia
Our main database and file storage are in Australia (Sydney). Some of our service providers handle part of your information overseas, mainly in the United States, as the list above and their own privacy policies describe.
Before we use a provider overseas, we take reasonable steps to make sure it handles personal information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles, including through its data protection terms with us. We remain accountable for how they handle it.
8. Children's information
Most students are children. They don't have Clefwise accounts, and we don't collect information directly from them. Their details are entered by their teacher, or by their parent. A teacher confirms, under our Terms, that they're allowed to record it and have given families any notice the law requires.
A parent can see what their child's teacher has recorded in the portal, and can ask the teacher, or us, to correct or delete it. If you think a child's information has been recorded without permission, email support@clefwise.app.
9. Security and data breaches
- Database rules make sure people see only their own studio's or family's records.
- Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Google sign-in tokens are encrypted again (AES-256-GCM).
- Files are private, and are only available through links that expire.
- Two-step sign-in is available for every account, and public pages are rate-limited.
- Security headers protect against common web attacks.
If a data breach is likely to cause serious harm, we'll tell the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires. We'll also tell every teacher whose studio is affected.
10. How long we keep it
- Studio records (students, families, lessons, notes, invoices): while the teacher's account is open. A teacher can delete a student or family at any time.
- Messages: for as long as both people's accounts and the studio exist, so a family and teacher keep their history. A message both people delete is removed within 30 days.
- Practice records: for as long as the student is in the studio, so progress and streaks carry across years. They're deleted with the student or the studio.
- Notifications: a day after you dismiss them, 14 days after you read them, and at most 6 months.
- Email logs, performance measurements and calendar busy-time: 90 days.
- iPhone push tokens: 180 days after the device was last used.
- Setup records: 24 months.
- Records of changes in a studio: while the studio exists. When someone deletes their account, these records no longer show who they were.
- When you signed up and last signed in, how you found Clefwise, and your choice about tips and news: while your account exists.
- Support requests: 24 months after the last reply; screenshots 90 days after the request closes.
- Acceptance records: a studio policy's while the studio exists, and our Terms and Privacy Policy's while your account exists (see section 11).
- Unsubscribes: we keep the email address of anyone who unsubscribes, so we never email them again, even after their account is deleted.
When a teacher deletes their account, we delete their studio and everything in it. When a parent deletes their account, we delete their login, profile and messages. Their teacher's student records stay with the teacher. Deleted data can remain in encrypted backups for up to 30 days.
11. Acceptance records
Teachers can publish studio policies (like cancellation and booking terms), and parents accept them in the portal. When you accept one, we record who you are, the exact version you were shown, when it was shown to you and when you accepted it, and your IP address and browser. We record these so the teacher can rely on them if a dispute arises.
We use these records only as evidence of agreement, never for tracking or advertising. We keep them while the studio exists, including after the parent's account is deleted. The teacher writes the policies, and we aren't a party to them.
When you accept our own Terms of Service or Privacy Policy, at signup or in the app after we update them, we record the same things: the version you accepted, a fingerprint of its exact text, when it was shown to you and when you accepted it, and your IP address and browser. We keep these records while your account exists, and delete them with it.
12. Emails and notifications
Some emails are part of the service and always send: invoices, receipts, sign-in links and invitations. Others you can turn off, including teachers' announcements, reminders and updates. Every one of those has an unsubscribe link, and you can also change them in Settings.
We may email you about your own account, for example to offer help getting set up. Reply if you'd rather we didn't, and we'll stop. Tips and news about Clefwise go only to teachers who ask for them, and each one has an unsubscribe link.
We record whether each email was delivered. We don't track whether you open emails or click links in them. When you open an invoice or a lesson note in the portal, your teacher sees that it was viewed.
13. Google Calendar data
Connecting Google Calendar is optional, and only teachers can do it. If a teacher connects it, Clefwise asks for two permissions:
- See your events (
calendar.readonly): we store the title, time and calendar name of your events for up to 90 days, so they appear as busy time and you don't book a lesson over them. - Manage lesson events (
calendar.events): lessons you schedule appear on your calendar, and update or disappear when you change them. Clefwise only changes the events it created.
Your Google tokens are encrypted and used only to keep the sync working. Disconnecting in Settings revokes our access and deletes the tokens and stored events. We don't sell or transfer Google data, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models. Nobody at Clefwise reads it unless you ask us to for support, or the law requires it. Clefwise's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
14. Questions and complaints
Email support@clefwise.app with any privacy question or complaint. We'll confirm we received it within 5 business days, look into it, and give you our answer in writing within 30 days.
If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
- Email: support@clefwise.app
- Business: Clefwise is run by Jackson Connor Pawelski, a sole trader (ABN 15 561 075 121), at 88 River Drive, Athelstone SA 5076.
15. Seeing, correcting and deleting your information
You can ask us to:
- give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
- correct anything that is wrong or out of date; or
- delete your account and your information.
You can change most details, and delete your account, yourself in Settings. For anything else, email support@clefwise.app. We'll respond within 30 days, and it won't cost you anything. If you ask about records a teacher keeps about your family, we may pass your request to the teacher, who decides what their studio records. We'll tell you if we do.
16. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we update the date at the top and list the changes there. We'll tell you about changes in the app, and by email when they're significant.