Privacy Policy

Ferb is a collaboration platform for families, schools, therapists and local authorities supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). In this policy, "Ferb", "we", "us" and "our" mean the operator of the Ferb service.

For the personal data in your account and your use of the website, we act as the data controller. For the documents and information you store and share inside folders, we act as a data processor on behalf of the organisation or individual who owns that folder.

Account information: your name, email address, role (for example parent, school, therapist or local authority), organisation, town and postcode area.

Content you add: folders, uploaded documents, form responses, notes, calendar entries and the email addresses you invite to a folder.

Sharing and access records: who created a folder, who it was shared with, and what level of access they hold.

Usage information: sign-in events, pages viewed inside the app, and a log of actions such as viewing, uploading or downloading a file. This record supports safeguarding and access auditing.

Messages you send us through the contact form or by email.

To create and secure your account, and to let you sign in.

To provide folders, file storage, sharing and invitations, and to show you the people and organisations relevant to you.

To send service emails: invitations, folder access notifications and essential account messages.

To keep the platform safe, detect misuse, and investigate access concerns.

To improve the product, using aggregated and de-identified information wherever possible.

Folder content will often relate to a child. That content is added and controlled by the folder owner, who is responsible for having a lawful basis to share it and for only inviting people who need to see it.

Children do not create their own accounts. Where a child has rights over their own information, those rights are usually exercised by a parent or guardian, or by the organisation holding the records.

People you invite: recipients of a folder invitation can see the folder you shared, and only that folder.

Service providers: hosting, storage, email delivery and error monitoring providers who process data on our instructions under written terms.

Legal requirements: where we are required to disclose information by law, a court order, or a safeguarding or regulatory obligation.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not use folder content for advertising.

Account information is kept while your account is active and for a short period afterwards so that it can be restored if you return.

Folder content is kept until the folder owner deletes it, or until the account is closed. Deleted content may remain in backups for a limited period before being overwritten.

Access and audit logs are kept for as long as needed for security and safeguarding purposes.

Access is by invitation only, folders are view-only by default for invited recipients, and connections are encrypted in transit. Every significant action inside a shared folder is recorded in an activity log so access can be reviewed.

No service can promise perfect security. If you believe an account or folder has been accessed by someone who should not have it, contact us straight away and we will help you review and revoke access.

We use cookies and similar storage that are necessary to keep you signed in and to remember your preferences. These are required for the service to work and cannot be switched off.

If we introduce optional analytics or marketing cookies, we will ask for your consent first and you will be able to change your choice at any time.

You have the right to be informed about how your data is used, to access a copy of it, to have inaccurate data corrected, to have it erased in certain circumstances, to restrict or object to processing, and to receive your data in a portable format.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Our GDPR & Data Protection page explains how to exercise these rights and how to contact us.

We will update this page when our practices change, and we will tell account holders about material changes by email or in the app before they take effect.