How Curbwise handles your information

Last updated 15 October 2026

Curbwise helps schools hand children to the right adult at pickup. This page explains what the Curbwise app, the staff website and this website collect, why, who can see it, how long it is kept, and how to have it deleted. It applies to parents, guardians, other adults who collect children, and school staff.

Who is responsible

Your school decides to use Curbwise and decides who may collect each child. For information about pupils and families, the school is in charge of it and Curbwise processes it on the school’s behalf, to run pickup for that school and for nothing else. For questions about what your school records, contact the school. For questions about this policy or the app, contact us at hello@curbwise.com.

What we collect

Your account

Your name, email address, a password (stored only as a secure hash, never readable), and a phone number if one is added. If you turn on two-step sign-in, a secret for your authenticator app.

Your place at the school

Which school you belong to and in which role (parent, guardian, caregiver, teacher, office staff, administrator), which classes you joined, and which children you are linked to or approved to collect, including any days or times the school set.

Children

The school enters each child’s name and class, and may add a photo so staff can recognise them at pickup. The child’s own parents, guardians and approved carers see that photo in the app; nobody else does. Parents never see other children. Children do not use Curbwise and we do not collect anything from them.

Your location, at two moments only

When you tap “I’m here”, the app sends one reading of where your phone is and how accurate it is, so the school can check you are at the pickup area. That reading is stored with the check-in.
While you share “On my way”, which is optional, the app sends your position every few seconds while that screen is open. Only the latest position is kept, never your route, and it is erased when you arrive, stop sharing, or the share ends.
The app does not track you in the background or at any other time. If you never use these two features, it never reads your location. If your phone has a compass, the “I’m here” screen uses it to point towards the pickup area; that stays on your phone.

Pickups

Each check-in and release: who arrived, for which child, when, what the school’s rules decided, which member of staff released the child and how they checked the adult’s identity, and any reason recorded for an exception. Notes you send the school, such as “running late” or “not collecting today”, and any pickup codes you request.

Messages

Messages you exchange with school staff, class announcements, whether you have seen an announcement, and your yes or no answer when a teacher asks for one.

Your devices

The devices you are signed in on and when each was last used, so you can sign one out. If notifications are on, a token that lets us send them to your phone. Face ID, Touch ID or fingerprint unlock is handled entirely by your phone; Curbwise never receives your face or fingerprint.

This website

If you ask for a walkthrough, the name, school, email address and message you type into the form. This website does not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not use analytics that follow you around the web.

Why we use it

To run pickup: tell staff who has arrived, check that adult against the school’s rules, and keep the child’s family informed.
To keep a record of every pickup, so the school can always show who collected each child and who released them.
To let you and the school message each other, and to send notifications you need, such as a pickup update or an urgent message from the office.
To keep accounts secure: signing in, two-step sign-in, spotting repeated wrong passwords, and signing out lost devices.
To answer walkthrough requests from this website.

We do not sell your information, use it for advertising, or build profiles of you. We do not use it to train artificial intelligence.

Who can see it

Staff at your school, according to their role. For example, teachers see pickups for the school and messages in their own classes; only office staff and administrators see custody arrangements.
Other adults linked to the same child see what they need, such as which adult told the school a child is not being collected. They never see why the school refused a pickup.
Other parents never see you: not your answers to announcements, your messages, or whether you have arrived.
Other schools never see anything. Each school’s information is kept separate.

We use a small number of service providers, only to run Curbwise:

Cloud hosting, where the Curbwise servers and database run.
Twilio SendGrid, to send email such as sign-in codes and invitations.
Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, to deliver notifications to phones. Notifications on a locked screen never name a child, an adult or a place. The one exception is an urgent message from the school office, which shows the office’s own words.
OpenStreetMap, which supplies the map pictures in the app and on the staff website. Your device downloads them directly, so OpenStreetMap’s servers see your device’s internet address, not who you are.

We share information with anyone else only if the law requires it, for example a valid court order, or to protect a child’s safety.

How long we keep it

“On my way” positions: erased as soon as the share ends.
Sign-in codes: last ten minutes; only a scrambled form of each code is ever stored. Pickup codes last ten minutes and work once.
Pickup records and the audit log are kept for the period your school chooses, at least one year; if it chooses none, they are kept for as long as the school uses Curbwise. Older records are deleted automatically each night. Until then they cannot be edited, and they stay even after an account is deleted, shown under “Deleted user” in place of the name. When a school stops using Curbwise, it can ask us to delete its information.
Walkthrough requests from this website: kept until we have answered, and then only as long as we are in contact.

Deleting your account, and your other rights

You can delete your account yourself, at any time. In the app, tap the person icon at the top right, then Delete my account. On the staff website, open Your account. You confirm with your password, and it happens straight away:

your name, email, phone number, password, two-step sign-in and every sign-in are removed;
your links to children, permissions, class memberships, notifications, pickup codes and any live location share are ended or removed;
the record of past pickups stays, without your name, for the reason above.

You can also ask us, or your school, for a copy of the information held about you, or to correct it. Write to hello@curbwise.com and we will answer within 30 days. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to complain to your data protection authority.

Children

Curbwise is used by adults: parents, guardians, carers and school staff. It is not meant for children and we do not knowingly collect information from them. Information about a child comes from their school, and from the adults linked to them, to make sure the child goes home with the right person.

Keeping it safe

Information travels encrypted between your device and our servers. Passwords and codes are stored only in scrambled form, two-step sign-in secrets are encrypted, and every school’s data is kept apart. Signing out clears the pickup information saved on your phone. No system is perfectly secure; if something goes wrong that affects you, we will tell your school, and you, as the law requires.

Changes

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change affects how your information is used, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions, requests or complaints: hello@curbwise.com.