Privacy Policy
1. Our Commitment
Ask ECE Pty Ltd (“Ask ECE”, “we”, “us”) is committed to handling your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the thirteen Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and protect your information when you use the Ask ECE platform.
2. Information We Collect
You provide: account details (name, email, password stored in hashed form, role, state, service name, date of birth), a record of your acceptance of our Terms and this Policy (date, version, IP), and the content you submit to our tools (observation notes, practice descriptions, programming).
Why we collect your date of birth. Two reasons, and no others. Our Terms require account holders to be 18 or over, and your date of birth is how we check that when you sign up. Beyond that we use it only in aggregate, to understand which age groups use Ask ECE and which tools serve them, so we build the right things. It is never shown to other users, never disclosed to anyone outside the providers listed in section 6, never used to advertise to you, and never used to decide what you can access. Accounts created before 19 August 2026 do not have one and are not asked for one.
Collected automatically: usage and credit-activity data, device/browser information, and cookies for session management and website analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used in aggregate (for example, number of visits and time on page), which helps us improve it. We do not use advertising cookies, and analytics does not identify you personally to us.
The questions you ask. When you use the Knowledge Engine we store the text of your question. We do this for two reasons: so you can see your own recent history, and so we can understand what the sector is asking and build the right tools and guidance. We keep it for 90 days and it is then deleted automatically. Your own view of that history shows your seven most recent questions. We do not store the answers alongside them, except for the small number you save yourself. See section 10.
Payment information: card details are collected and processed directly by a third-party payment provider. We do not see or store your full card number.
Information about children: our tools are designed to collect as little about a child as possible. Where a tool involves an individual child, we collect the child's first name and the first letter of their surname only (for example, “Mia S.”), together with the observation or practice notes you choose to write. See section 5 for how long this is kept.
We deliberately do NOT collect: a child's full name, photographs, date of birth, address, contact details, or health, diagnostic or developmental records.
3. How We Use It
To create and manage your account, provide and improve the Platform, process payments and credits, send transactional emails, respond to support, meet legal obligations, and protect the security of the Platform.
Who can read what you write. Ask ECE is operated by one person, its founder. He is the only individual who can read the content you submit, including the text of your questions, and he does so to support you, to check the quality of answers, and to decide what to build next. There are no other staff, contractors or users with access to it, and no other account can see your content. The service providers in section 6 process it on our behalf under their own obligations. Where we share or publish information externally, or use it for general analysis and reporting, we use de-identified and aggregated information only.
4. Artificial Intelligence & Automated Decisions
Some tools use AI to generate draft content (such as a learning story or QIP goals) for you to review, verify and edit. This is general information to support your professional judgement. Ask ECE does not use automated decision-making to make decisions that significantly affect you. The AI generates content for you; it does not decide anything about your account or rights. Content you submit is processed by our secure third-party AI provider under confidentiality and security obligations. We do not use your individual submissions to train AI models without your explicit consent.
5. Children's Information
Ask ECE is built for early childhood professionals and is intended for adults aged 18 and over. It is not directed at children, and children are not its users. Because our tools support work that concerns children, we have designed the Platform to collect as little about a child as possible, and to keep it for as short a time as possible.
What we collect about a child. Where a tool involves an individual child, we collect the child's first name and the first letter of their surname only, for example “Mia S.”. We do this so you can recognise your own work when you return to it. We never collect a child's full name, photograph, date of birth, address, contact details, or health, diagnostic or developmental records. Some tools, such as the Strategic Inclusion Plan drafter, are designed around your service and program rather than an individual child, and collect no child details at all.
How long we keep it. Work you create in a tool that records an individual child is kept for 90 days from the last time you edit it, and is then deleted automatically. Editing a piece of work starts that 90 days again, so work you are still using is not lost while you are using it. You can download your work at any time to keep your own copy, and we encourage you to do so, because we do not keep it for you long term.
Why 90 days, and why it changed. This period was seven days until 27 August 2026. Seven days is shorter than the work itself: a planning cycle runs across a term, and an educator returning to one after a fortnight found it gone. 90 days covers a term and the reflection after it. The clock runs from your last edit rather than from when you started, so work you are still using never expires and work you have finished with does. We keep this period as short as the work allows, because it is the only real protection for information about a child: what is not held cannot be lost.
Planning work that records no child. Some planning work records no individual child at all. A planning cycle written about a group or a whole room records no child's name, and is kept for 90 days from your last edit in the same way as work about an individual child, because what you write about a room can still describe a child even when you have not named one. A curriculum plan is different again: it records no child, no room and no observation, only what you intend to offer and how you will set it up. Because it holds nothing about a child, it is kept for three months after the month it is planned for, and is then deleted. A plan for June is deleted on 1 October. As with everything else, you can download it at any time to keep your own copy.
Work that records no child at all, and is kept longer. The Educational Leader tools are about adults: your own role, your mentoring of colleagues, your reflections on practice, and the evidence you are assembling against the National Quality Standard. They hold no child's name, no photograph and no record of a child, and they are built so they cannot: nothing about a child can be linked into them from elsewhere in the Platform, and they accept no file uploads. Because that work has to last across an assessment and rating cycle, and because it is about you and your colleagues rather than about a child, it is kept while your account is open rather than deleted on a short cycle. It is deleted with the rest of your account under section 10. Your own journal in that tool is more private again: it is never included in anything you export, and it is not shown anywhere else in the Platform.
Your professional obligations. Ask ECE is a drafting tool, not your service's record-keeping system. You remain responsible for meeting your own obligations under the Education and Care Services National Law and National Regulations, your service's privacy policy, and any consent your families have given.
We treat acting in the best interests of children as a core design principle. The Children's Online Privacy Code (to be registered by 10 December 2026) is directed at services accessed by children, which Ask ECE is not; we nonetheless align with its principle of minimising children's data and will review this Policy as it is finalised.
6. Disclosure
We do not sell or rent your personal information. We disclose it only to the service providers needed to operate the Platform: providers of payment processing, database hosting and authentication, AI processing, transactional email, opt-in newsletter delivery, website analytics, and application hosting. Each is bound by its own privacy and security obligations, and some are located overseas (see below). We will provide the identity of a specific provider on request, and may also disclose where required or authorised by law.
7. Overseas Disclosure
Some providers store or process information outside Australia, including in the United States. Where we disclose to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled consistently with the APPs. By using the Platform you acknowledge your information may be stored or processed overseas.
8. Storage & Security
We apply technical and organisational measures under APP 11, including encryption in transit and at rest, access controls and authentication, and regular security review, to protect your information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access. No online service can guarantee absolute security.
9. Data Breaches
We maintain procedures to detect, assess and respond to data breaches. If a breach is likely to result in serious harm and the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme applies, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as soon as practicable. If you believe your information has been involved in a breach, contact hello@askece.com.au.
10. Cookies & Retention
We use essential cookies for authentication and Google Analytics cookies to measure website usage in aggregate. We keep your account information while your account is active and delete or de-identify it within 90 days of account closure, unless legally required to retain it.
Anything that records a child is kept for a much shorter time, and each is deleted automatically. You can download your work at any time to keep your own copy, and we encourage you to do so, because we do not keep it for you long term.
The text of your questions is kept for 90 days from when you ask, and is then deleted. Your own history view shows your seven most recent questions.
Answers you save are capped at your seven most recent. When you save a new one, the oldest is removed.
Images you generate are kept for seven days and are then deleted.
Planning work about an individual child or a group is kept for 90 days from the last time you edit it. Editing it starts that 90 days again. This was seven days until 27 August 2026; see section 5 for why it changed.
A curriculum plan, which records no child, no room and no observation, is kept for three months after the month it is planned for. A plan for June is deleted on 1 October.
Educational Leader records, which are about you and your colleagues and hold nothing about a child, are kept while your account is open and are deleted with your account. Your journal in that tool is never exported and is not shown anywhere else in the Platform.
See section 5 for what we collect about a child and why these periods are short.
11. Your Rights
You may access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information (subject to legal retention), and opt out of marketing. Email hello@askece.com.au. We respond within a reasonable time, generally within 30 days.
12. Marketing
We send marketing communications only where you have opted in, and every marketing email includes an unsubscribe. Opting out does not stop essential account messages.
13. Complaints
If you have a concern, please contact us first at hello@askece.com.au. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the OAIC at oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992.
14. Changes
We may update this Policy to reflect changes to the Platform or the law, including as the Children's Online Privacy Code and further privacy reforms are finalised. Material changes will update the version and date above.
15. Contact
Ask ECE Pty Ltd · ACN 698 425 240 · ABN 26 698 425 240 · hello@askece.com.au · askece.com.au