Privacy notice

UpperSeat is a school operations platform operated by UpperCase Systems Corp.. This notice applies to the UpperSeat public site and its Admin, Parent, and Platform portals. It explains how we handle personal information when operating the service and when processing information for a school or other subscribing institution.

A school determines why its education records are used, who may access them, and which requests or disclosures it authorizes. UpperSeat processes those records to provide the contracted service under the school's agreement and authorized instructions. The school's own notices and its agreement with UpperSeat may provide additional details.

The information involved depends on the UpperSeat features an institution uses:

• Account and relationship information: Name, email address, telephone number, organization, school, role, account status, authentication, session, and security records.
• Student, family, and education information: Student and guardian identifiers and contact details, family relationships, enrollment or admissions data, school-year and grade information, form responses, statuses, decisions, notes, and other records supplied by the institution or an authorized user.
• Documents, contracts, and signatures: Uploaded files, document review status, contract content, signer identity, typed or drawn signature, acceptance records, timestamps, network address, and completed PDFs.
• Billing and payment information: Charges, amounts, payer and billing status, receipts, transaction references, and Stripe identifiers. When Stripe-hosted Checkout is used, Stripe receives payment-card details; UpperSeat is not designed to receive or store full payment-card numbers through that hosted flow.
• Communications and support: Messages, email delivery records, support requests, and information submitted in a public demo or contact form.
• Technical and security information: Network address, browser or device details, request and audit history, authentication events, errors, and other records needed to secure and operate the service.

We receive information directly from users, from the relevant institution or its authorized systems, from service providers acting for us, and automatically when the service performs an authorized operation.

We use minimized product-usage events to understand adoption, maintain service quality, and improve UpperSeat. Events may include normalized page categories, portal type, designed action codes, completed operational steps, and one-way pseudonymous user, organization, school, or record identifiers. We treat those identifiers as protected data.

Product analytics is not designed to collect names, email addresses, telephone numbers, student details, form contents, free text, filenames, payment details, concrete record URLs, or institution hostnames. We do not use session replay or record form contents.

UpperSeat analytics uses no analytics cookies, local storage, session storage, or other persistent browser storage. Browser analytics is not initialized when Do Not Track (DNT) or Global Privacy Control (GPC) is enabled. A network request necessarily reaches our analytics provider from a network address, but our PostHog Cloud US project is configured to discard raw IP addresses at ingestion and disable GeoIP enrichment.

Server-side transactional analytics may still record a minimized event after an authenticated product action succeeds because those events support service operation and improvement rather than browser tracking.

When enabled for an institution, AI-assisted chat or document-review features may process the prompt, selected record context, or document content needed to fulfill the request, together with the resulting output and operational metadata. These requests are sent from the UpperSeat backend through OpenRouter to the downstream model configured for the feature. UpperSeat configures compatible PDFs for native-only model processing and does not authorize a separate OCR or document-parsing engine for this flow.

An institution should use an AI-assisted feature with protected student information only when the feature, provider terms, and intended data have been authorized under the applicable agreement. AI output may be inaccurate and must be handled through the institution's approved workflow and access rules.

• Provide, configure, support, and improve the requested UpperSeat services.
• Authenticate users and enforce organization, school, role, and record access.
• Operate admissions, enrollment, document, contract, communication, and billing workflows.
• Protect the service, investigate misuse, maintain audit history, and respond to incidents.
• Send transactional messages and respond to support or privacy requests.
• Meet contractual, accounting, security, and legal obligations.
• Produce minimized service analytics without advertising or cross-site profiling.

We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not use education records for targeted advertising.

We may disclose information only as needed to:

• The relevant institution and its authorized staff, parents, guardians, or other users.
• Vendors supporting enabled functions, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) for hosting and storage, Stripe for payments, Resend for transactional email, PostHog Cloud US for minimized analytics, hCaptcha for public-form abuse prevention, and OpenRouter and a configured downstream model for authorized AI-assisted features.
• Advisers or authorities when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights and safety, investigate fraud or an incident, or establish or defend legal claims.
• A successor in a merger, financing, reorganization, or sale, subject to appropriate confidentiality and continued protection of the information.

The exact vendors used may depend on the institution, environment, and enabled features. Vendors receive only the information needed for their approved function and are subject to the applicable service configuration and agreements.

Where a FERPA-covered school relies on the school-official framework, the arrangement must limit UpperSeat to the institutional service, place the use and maintenance of education records under the school's direct control, and apply the authorized-purpose and redisclosure restrictions established by law and agreement.

Parents and eligible students should normally direct requests to inspect, correct, export, or delete education records to the relevant school. The school determines the appropriate response, and UpperSeat will assist it as required by the agreement and applicable law. A request sent directly to us may require identity verification and coordination with the school before action is taken.

We retain information for the period needed to provide the service, follow the institution's authorized instructions and agreement, secure and document operations, resolve disputes, and satisfy applicable legal obligations. Retention depends on the record category and the institution's requirements; it is not determined by the analytics period alone.

Product analytics events and derived person records are retained for no longer than 24 months and are then scheduled for permanent deletion. When information is deleted from an active system, protected backup copies may remain until their scheduled expiration unless law or the applicable agreement requires a different process.

We use administrative and technical safeguards intended to protect confidentiality, integrity, availability, and tenant separation. These include authenticated access, authorization checks, encryption in transit, audit records, change controls, and recovery procedures. No system can guarantee absolute security.

UpperSeat uses service providers that may process information in the United States and other locations described in their terms and the applicable institution agreement. The analytics service identified in this notice is PostHog Cloud US.

UpperSeat is currently intended for authorized school personnel and parents or guardians; it is not directed to children under 13 to create their own accounts or independently submit personal information. Schools and authorized adults may provide information about children for legitimate school operations. Contact us if you believe a child submitted information directly without appropriate authorization.

For an education-record request, contact the relevant school first. For questions about this notice, an UpperSeat account, product analytics, or a suspected privacy or security issue, email info@upperseat.com. We may verify identity and authority before acting.

We will post material changes here with a revised effective date and provide additional notice when required by the applicable agreement or law.