Who sees what
Almanak puts a school's whole day into one clean calendar. That is also exactly what someone with bad intentions would want. We build the thing, so we carry the risk. These controls cost us customers, and we keep them anyway.
No open signup. Ever.
Nobody can reach a school's content by typing the school's name and paying. You must be verified against the school's own list of parents, or hold a family code the school issued. An unverified account sees nothing.
What it costs: The school supplies a list once a year.
Your children's grades, and outings with a date only
A parent sees their own children's grades and whole-school events, not other grades. For an outing, Almanak shows the fact and the date only. The departure time, venue, gate and transport are not even stored.
What it costs: If you deleted the school's email, you phone the school for the bus time.
A child's status is for their own household only
At the aftercare, only the child's household and the staff on duty see where the child is right now. Every time someone opens a child's record it is logged, and the household can see who looked.
What it costs: No shared view for parents at the aftercare.
Delegated access is for today
An au pair, grandmother or lift club sees today and tomorrow, not the term. Every delegation expires within twelve months and has to be renewed.
What it costs: Parents renew delegations from time to time.
Only the household decides who may collect a child
No staff member, not even the aftercare's owner, can add someone to the list or override a handover. In a family with two households, the other household is told of any change immediately.
What it costs: An unknown person at the gate waits while the parent is called.
Why paid-only accounts help
Every subscriber has a card in a real name, with a bank's own verification behind it. That does not make impersonation impossible, but it costs more and leaves a trail.
Cut off, immediately
A school, aftercare or household can revoke all access instantly from inside the app, without contacting us. Where there is a credible safety concern about an account, we suspend it first and investigate after.
Where the information is kept
In South Africa. Your children's information does not leave the country.
Security
Found a weakness? Write to security@almanak.co.za. We do not pursue researchers acting in good faith.