Privacy Policy

Last updated November 11, 2026

This policy explains what personal data Montessori School Finder handles, why, and for how long. In short, the site sets no cookies, runs no analytics and shows no ads. Apart from the technical logs kept by our host, the only personal data we keep about visitors is what they send us through the contact form.

Data Controller

The data controller is BIGBANG MEDIA, a French limited liability company (SARL) with a share capital of €1,000, registered with RCS Laval under number 917 929 382, with its registered office in Laval (53000), Mayenne, France. Full company details are in our Legal Notice. You can reach us about your data through the contact form.

The Contact Form

What We Collect

When you send a message, we receive the following data.

• Your name
• Your email address
• The school you are writing about, if you fill in this optional field
• Your message
• The date and time it was sent

Why We Use It

We use this data to answer your message and, when you write about a school, to update or correct its listing. We do not use it for marketing and we do not add you to any mailing list. We never sell it.

Legal Basis

We rely on our legitimate interest in answering the people who write to us and in keeping the directory accurate (Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR). When you ask us to do something, such as correcting a listing, the processing is also needed to take the steps you asked for (Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR).

How Long We Keep It

Your message is stored in a private database on our server, outside the public part of the website. A copy is emailed to our mailbox so that we can reply. Stored messages are deleted automatically 12 months after they were sent, and we delete the email copies within the same period. If you ask us to delete your message sooner, we will.

Spam Protection

To limit spam, the form counts how many messages come from the same connection. It does this with a salted hash of your IP address, meaning a scrambled code made from the address and a secret value. The site never stores your IP address itself. These counters are deleted after two days, and the code saved with a message is deleted together with the message. The form also uses a hidden field and the time the page was loaded to spot automated submissions.

Hosting Logs

Like any web host, o2switch records technical data when a page is requested, such as the IP address, the date and time, the page requested and the browser type. These logs are kept by o2switch for a limited period, for security and to run the service. We consult them only when needed to keep the site secure and working, for example during an attack. The site and its data are hosted in France.

No Cookies, Analytics or Advertising

The site sets no cookies. It uses no analytics tool, no advertising tracker and no social media plugin. Fonts and scripts are served from our own server, not from third-party networks. Our Cookie Policy gives the details.

Detect Location

The Detect Location button on the home page asks your browser for your position only after you click it, and your browser asks for your permission first. Your coordinates are used inside your browser to sort schools from the nearest. They are never sent to our server or to anyone else, and we do not store them.

To find nearby schools, your browser downloads the list of schools for your country from our server. When the map then shows your area, it loads the map images for that area from OpenStreetMap, as it does for any map on the site.

OpenStreetMap Map Tiles

Pages with a map load map images, called tiles, directly from OpenStreetMap servers run by the OpenStreetMap Foundation, a not-for-profit organization based in the United Kingdom. Like any web request, this sends them your IP address, your browser details and the area of the map you are viewing. Their handling of this data is described in the OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy.

Links to Google Maps and Other Sites

The Get Directions button opens Google Maps in a new tab, and school pages link to school websites. Those sites receive data about you only if you click, and their own privacy policies then apply.

Information About Schools

The directory lists schools as organizations, with details such as their name, address, phone number, website, opening hours, programs and Google rating. This information comes from the public sources described in our Legal Notice. Some of it may relate to a person, for example when a school is named after its founder or lists a personal phone number. We publish it on the basis of our legitimate interest in helping families find and compare schools (Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR). We do not publish profiles of staff, parents or children.

For some schools we also keep, in our private working files, the text of public Google reviews without any reviewer name, so that we can describe the general themes of reviews in our own words. These texts are never published.

A school, or any person concerned by a listing, can ask us to correct it, to remove it or to object to its publication through the contact form.

Who Receives Your Data

Your data is used by BIGBANG MEDIA only. Our host o2switch stores the website and the form database for us in France. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS. Form messages are stored outside the public folder of the website and can be read only by us. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, so we also keep risk low by collecting as little as possible.

Your Rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the French Data Protection Act (Loi Informatique et Libertés), you have the following rights over your personal data.

• Access, to know whether we hold data about you and to get a copy
• Rectification, to have inaccurate data corrected
• Erasure, to have your data deleted
• Objection, to object to processing based on our legitimate interest
• Restriction, to ask us to limit the use of your data while a request is being checked
• Portability, to receive the data you gave us in a common format

To use any of these rights, write to us through the contact form and say which right you want to use. We answer within one month. If we have a reasonable doubt about your identity, we may ask for information to confirm it.

Complaints

If you think we have not respected your rights, you can lodge a complaint with the CNIL, the French data protection authority, at www.cnil.fr, or with the data protection authority of the country where you live or work.

Children

The site is meant for parents and other adults. It does not collect data about children, and we ask children not to use the contact form. If you think a child has sent us a message, tell us and we will delete it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy when the site changes, for example if we add a feature that handles personal data. We will publish the new version on this page with its date. The current version is dated November 11, 2026.