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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 17 August 2026

Kantini is a cashless wallet for school payments. Parents fund a wallet, and a student pays at the school canteen by placing a finger on a scanner. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and how you get it deleted.

It covers the Kantini parent app, the Kantini web portal, the point-of-sale terminals used inside schools, and the Kantini backend service.

Who is responsible for your data

Kantini is operated by Nile Squad Labz in Kampala, Uganda. For any question about this policy or about your data, contact ugkantini@gmail.com.

What we collect

From parents

Data Why we need it
Phone number It is how you sign in. We send a one-time code to verify it.
Name, email address, occupation, profile photo To identify your account and show it back to you. All optional except your name.
Deposit and spending history To show you where the money went, and to keep an auditable record.

About your children

You provide this when you register a child, or your school does:

  • Name, school, class, and student number
  • Wallet balance, spending, and daily spending limit
  • An optional photograph
  • A fingerprint template, if the school enrols one

Fingerprints, stated plainly

We never capture or store an image of a fingerprint. The scanner converts the finger to a mathematical template in the ANSI INCITS 378 format. A template cannot be turned back into a picture of a fingerprint, and it cannot be used to unlock anything outside Kantini.

That template is stored on our servers, and it is sent to the school terminals so a payment can be verified. The comparison itself happens on the terminal rather than on our servers. We would rather say this directly than imply that nothing biometric ever leaves the device.

Fingerprints are only ever collected at school, on a terminal or an administrator device. The parent app does not collect biometrics at all.

What we do not collect

  • Card numbers, mobile money PINs, or any payment credential. Payments are handled by Pesapal; we receive only the result.
  • Location data.
  • Contacts, photos, or files, beyond a profile picture you deliberately choose.
  • Anything for advertising. We do not sell data and we do not run ads.

Who we share it with

Who What they receive Why
Google Firebase and Google Cloud All account and wallet data They host our database, our sign-in, and our servers.
Pesapal Your phone number and the amount, when you deposit They process the payment. They receive no student data.
Your child's school That child's wallet, spending, and enrolment status Administrators manage students and canteen terminals.

We share your data with nobody else, except where the law requires it.

Where it is stored

On Google Cloud servers in Johannesburg, South Africa, which means your data leaves Uganda. Google infrastructure carries its own data protection commitments.

How long we keep it

  • While your account is open: for as long as you use Kantini.
  • Fingerprint templates: deleted when a student leaves the school, or whenever you ask us to remove them.
  • Transaction records: kept for seven years after your account closes. Financial records must be retained, so we cannot delete these on request. They are held separately from your contact details.

Your rights

Under the Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019, you may ask us to:

  • Show you the data we hold about you and your children
  • Correct anything that is wrong
  • Delete your account and its data — see Delete your account
  • Remove a fingerprint template while keeping the wallet
  • Stop processing your data, accepting that the wallet then stops working

Write to ugkantini@gmail.com and we will reply within 30 days. If our answer does not satisfy you, you may complain to the Personal Data Protection Office of Uganda.

Children

Kantini holds data about schoolchildren, but children do not use Kantini. There is no student app and students hold no account. A student's only interaction with the system is placing a finger on a scanner at the till.

Only a parent, a guardian, or an authorised school administrator can create or manage a student record. By registering a child you confirm you have the authority to do so.

How we protect it

  • All traffic between the apps and our servers is encrypted with HTTPS.
  • Our database refuses direct access from apps. Everything passes through our server, which checks who is asking on every request.
  • Parents can only ever see their own children. This is enforced on the server using your verified phone number, never by anything the app claims.
  • Each canteen terminal holds its own key. A lost terminal is switched off centrally and immediately, without anyone touching the device.
  • Terminal keys are stored only as cryptographic hashes, so not even we can read them.

No system is perfect. If you believe your account has been misused, contact us immediately and we will freeze the wallet.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that affects you, we will tell you in the app before the change takes effect.