Privacy Policy

Privacy Information Collection Statement
Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it. We provide this Privacy Policy to inform you of our privacy procedures and practices, including what information we collect about you, how we obtain your information and how we use your information.

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy “we”, “our” and “us” refer to Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai, the “website” refers to the https://sisd.ae website and “you” and “your” refers to our students, the parents of our students, our faculty members, our employees and contractors, or any individual accessing our website or contacting us to request further information about our school.

By using our website including signing up for any newsletters or feeds, you are agreeing to be bound by our Terms and Conditions, which include this Privacy Policy. By visiting or using the website, to the extent permitted by applicable law you are consenting to us gathering and processing information about you in accordance with this Privacy Policy, although consent may not be required for all of the elements described in this Privacy Policy. For particular types of information or processing, we may provide you with choices or request your further consent related to what information we collect and how we may process it.

This Privacy Policy does not cover third parties or their services and we do not take any responsibility for how such third parties may use any information they collect. For information about third-party privacy practices, please consult with them directly.

Please take the time to read this Privacy Policy and note that it may change from time to time. You can always find an up-to-date version here on this page. 

Data collection and use
The information we may collect from you includes:

information establishing your identity (such as name, unique student number, Emirates ID or passport, visa information, contact details and address).
characteristics (such as age, gender, ethnicity, and language).
special education needs.
medical and administration (such as doctor’s information, child health, dental health, allergies, medication, and dietary requirements).
attendance (such as sessions attended, number of absences, absence reasons and any previous schools attended).
assessment and attainment.
safeguarding information (such as court orders and professional involvement).
behavioural information (such as exclusions and any relevant alternative provisions put in place).
information relating to your employment with us (such as job titles, working hours, holidays, training records, start and leave dates, and professional memberships).
information relating to your application to work with us (e.g. previous addresses, education, work history, qualifications and previous employers).
information we receive from you and third parties when carrying out pre-employment checks, for example when we receive references on your behalf.
financial information (for example, bank details of employees).
information relating to your use of our website (for example, domain name, IP, address and cookies).
any information you independently choose to provide to us (for example, if you send us an email or call us about an application for your child to the school or when you speak to Human Resources)
Parents survey and marketing responses, such as parent satisfaction score, school feedback, school rating criteria and other such relevant information.
How do we obtain your data?
We may collect your personal data during our relationship with you and will only use your data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

We may obtain this information from a variety of sources, including:

from you (for example, when you make enquiries to us about our school, when you provide us with your personal data, through registration forms at the start of the school year, when you provide the data as our faculty member or employee);
from your parents or guardians.
from suppliers, job recruitment websites.
third parties such as former employees and background check agencies.
How we use your data?
We may use or process your personal data for the following purposes:

To onboard, select and enrol students.
to support you with your learning.
to monitor and report on student progress.
to provide appropriate care to our students.
to assess the quality of our services as a school.
to keep the students safe (e.g. food allergies or emergency contact details);
to meet our legal duties placed upon us by applicable educational regulatory authorities.
to respond to any queries, requests, or comments that you may have.
to process your payments.
to review, develop and improve the services which we offer; and
to comply with our other legal obligations.
to carry out background and reference checks, where applicable.
to communicate with you about your employment with the school.
to carry out our obligations as an employer.
to enable the development of a comprehensive picture of the workforce and how it is deployed at the school; and
to ensure the safeguarding of the students.
On what basis we use your data?
We use your personal data on the following basis:

For our legitimate business interests. Using your personal data helps us to operate, improve and minimise any disruption to the services that we provide to you. We also have a legitimate interest in sending you information on the services, offerings, and events we believe will be of interest to you.
because the information is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request to enter a contract.
because you have given your consent (if we expressly ask for consent to process your personal data, for a specific purpose).
because you have made your personal data publicly available.
to ensure the protection of your interests.
where we need to carry out our legal obligations or exercise rights in connection with your employment.
to comply with legal and regulatory obligations; and
where it is needed in the public interest (e.g. for equal opportunities monitoring).
If you do not wish to provide us with certain data when requested, we may not be able to perform certain services for you or perform the employment contract we have entered with you, or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure the health and safety of our students, faculty and employees).

With whom do we share your data?
We will only disclose or transfer your personal data for the purposes set out in this Policy to:

schools that the students attend after leaving us.
our local authorities, including the Ministry of Education and the Dubai Knowledge and Human Development Authority, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai Health Care City.
third party service providers and sub-contractors who provide a service to us (including but not limited to marketing, data processing, IT and office services);
any member of our group; International accreditation organisations and learning platform subscriptions including but not limited to iSAMS, ManageBac, Go4school, Toddle, etc.
any other competent authorities if we are legally required to comply with a request for data.
How do we store and process your data?
We store some of the data we obtain about you on servers in the UAE. Your data may be transmitted, kept, and processed in nations without the same stringent data privacy rules as the UAE, as well as by individuals working for us or one of our suppliers outside the UAE. In order to provide you with the service you have requested from us, it may be necessary to transmit, store, or process your information across national boundaries and entities. By submitting the information, you accept and consent to this. To make sure that the information is handled securely and in compliance with this Privacy Policy, we shall take all necessary, commercially reasonable measures.

We will only transfer your personal data outside the UAE on one of the following basis:

the third party to which the data is transferred has provided appropriate safeguards that ensure the security of your personal data, in line with applicable laws; and
the transfer is necessary for us to perform a contract with you (e.g. employment contract).
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of information that your browser stores on your computer when requested by a website.

We request your browser to store a cookie when you access this website and may request your browser to store one or more cookies when you make purchases, request or personalise information, or register yourself for certain services.

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.
The cookies that are categorized as “Necessary” are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site.
We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse how you use this website, store your preferences, and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you. These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent.
You can choose to enable or disable some or all these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience

Necessary – Always Active:
Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

Functional:
Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

Analytics:
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

Performance:
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

Advertisement:
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

Others:
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category yet.

Data retention
We will keep your data only for as long as is necessary to respond to any queries or complaints, to improve the services that we offer to you or to comply with any legal obligations to which we may be subject.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve such purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Your rights
Under data protection legislation, you have the right to request the following:

Access to your data – request a copy of your personal data that we process about you.
Rectify your data – request us to amend or update your personal data where it is inaccurate or incomplete.
Erase your data – request us to delete your personal data where it is no longer necessary for the purpose(s) for which your information was originally collected.
Restrict your data – request us temporarily or permanently to stop processing all or some of your personal data.
Object to the use of your data – at any time, object to us processing your personal data where it is based exclusively on our legitimate interests (see above) or for direct marketing purposes.
Receive or transmit your data in a machine-readable and structured format (otherwise known as “data portability”) – request the receipt or transmission of your personal data to another organisation, in a structured and machine-readable format.
Withdraw your consent – withdraw your consent at any time to the use of your personal data for a particular purpose (where we have asked you for consent to use your information for that particular purpose).
For any of the above, please email us at dpo@sisd.ae or contact us at the following address:

Swiss International Scientific School, Dubai
Dubai Healthcare City
Phase 2, Al Jaddaf, 505002, Dubai, UAE
+971 4 375 0600

Subject to any overriding legal obligations, requirements and/or exemptions, we will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible, unless we require further information from you. We may ask you to provide proof of your identity.

Security
We are committed to protecting the information you provide us. We have implemented security policies, rules and technical measures to protect the personal data that we have under our control, in accordance with applicable data protection laws. The security measures are designed to prevent unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification and unlawful destruction or accidental loss. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so will make all reasonable endeavours to ensure that there are no personal data breaches.

When appropriate, we will report the data breach to the principal within 24 hours. Such breaches in SISD context may include, but are not limited to:

A non-anonymized dataset being published on the SISD website which provide access to confidential information of the users
Safeguarding information being made available to an unauthorized person
The theft of a school laptop containing non-encrypted personal data about students
Hyperlinks
Our websites may provide links to third-party websites for your convenience. If you access those links, you will leave our website. We do not control those websites or their privacy practices, which may differ from ours. We do not endorse or make any representations about third-party websites. This Privacy Policy does not cover the personal data you choose to give to unrelated third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy Policy of any company before submitting your personal data. Some third-party companies may choose to share their personal data with us; that sharing is governed by that third-party company’s privacy Policy. Notification of changes

We may be required to update or change our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will upload an updated Privacy Policy on this website.

This Privacy Policy sets out in broad terms how we handle your personal data and safeguard our privacy. If you have any questions relating to our Privacy Policy, send us a mail at dpo@sisd.ae or contact us at the following address:

Swiss International Scientific School
Dubai Healthcare City, Phase 2,
Al Jaddaf, Dubai, PO Box 505002 UAE
+971 4 375 0600