Terms of service
The agreement, in language a governing body can read.
These terms govern a school's use of MySentinel. They set out what your school is responsible for, what we commit to, how billing and cancellation work, and — just as importantly — what this system does not do. A term nobody reads protects nobody, so this page is written to be read.
MySentinel is a product of Binary Solutions, a registered South African company. Where these terms say "we", they mean that company. Where they say "you", they mean the school.
Last updated 6 August 2026.
What you are subscribing to
MySentinel records learner check-ins and check-outs from NFC badges scanned at the gate, keeps a live picture of who is on site, derives attendance from it, and notifies guardians. It also carries a visitor register, an emergency broadcast, a parent portal for pickup requests and absences, and a POPIA console for subject-rights requests.
It is a hosted service. There is nothing for your school to install on a server, and no per-seat licence for staff — the price is per active learner, on the bands published on the pricing page, and it is confirmed in writing before your school is invoiced.
What your school is responsible for
The system is only as correct as what it is told. These four are where the school's action, not ours, decides whether it works.
The people you give access to
Accounts belong to named individuals and must not be shared. When a staff member leaves, remove their access. You are responsible for what is done under your school's accounts.
The accuracy of your records
Learner enrolments, guardian links, and contact details come from you. A notification goes to the number you supplied; if the wrong guardian is linked to a child, the system will faithfully tell the wrong person.
The lawful basis for the data
You are the responsible party under POPIA. You are responsible for obtaining the consent that lets a learner's information be processed, and for the notices you give parents.
Your settings
Retention periods, notification channels, quiet hours, release rules and visitor fields are yours to configure. The defaults are sensible; the choices are still the school's.
What we commit to
We run the service
Hosting, maintenance, security updates and improvements are ours, at no extra charge. There is no separate licence fee for new features released during your subscription.
We protect the data
Encryption of sensitive information at rest and in transit, isolation between schools, and a permanent audit trail. Details are on the trust page and in the privacy policy.
We process only on your instruction
We do not sell, rent, share or mine your school's data, and we do not use it to train anything. We access it only to operate and support the service, or where the law compels us.
We tell you when something goes wrong
If there is a security compromise affecting your school's information, we tell you without delay, with what we know and what we are doing about it — not a sanitised notice weeks later.
Who owns what
Your data stays yours. Learner records, guardian details, movement history, attendance and audit records belong to your school. We hold them to run the service, and for no other purpose. You can export them at any time while your subscription is active.
The software stays ours. The MySentinel platform, its design, and its name remain the property of Binary Solutions. Your subscription grants your school the right to use it, not to copy, resell, or reverse-engineer it.
Billing, term and cancellation
Billing is monthly in arrears, per active learner, invoiced to the school. There is no payment mechanism inside the product and no card is stored — invoices are issued and settled the way your school settles any other supplier.
There is no fixed lock-in term. Either side may end the subscription with 30 days' written notice, and we will not raise the rate for an existing school without at least 60 days' notice — enough time for a budget cycle to absorb it or for you to leave.
When a subscription ends, your school can export its records. After that, and on your instruction, the data is deleted. We do not hold a school's data hostage against an unpaid invoice — a safety record about children is not leverage.
Acceptable use
MySentinel exists to keep children safe. It must not be used to monitor staff covertly, to send marketing or fundraising messages to guardians, to test or attack the platform's security without our written agreement, or for anything unlawful.
The emergency broadcast reaches every guardian on every channel and deliberately ignores quiet hours and notification preferences. It is for genuine emergencies. Using it for anything else trains parents to ignore the one message that will matter.
If a school uses the platform in a way that endangers children or breaks the law, we may suspend access. Where it is safe and lawful to do so, we will raise it with you first.
What this system does not do
Stated here rather than buried at the end, because a school buying a safety product deserves to know the edges of it before it signs.
MySentinel is a record, not a guard
The system records who came in and out and tells guardians. It does not physically prevent anyone from entering, and it does not replace supervision, staffing, or your school's safety procedures. Decisions about a child's safety remain the school's.
Notifications depend on networks we do not own
A message travels over mobile networks, WhatsApp, or an email provider. We deliver it to those channels and record whether they accepted it, but we cannot guarantee that a specific message arrives on a specific phone at a specific moment. That is why the system uses more than one channel, and why every send is recorded.
The gate keeps working offline; the rest needs a connection
Badge scans are recorded on the officer's device even when the signal drops, and sync when it returns. Dashboards, reports and notifications need connectivity.
Liability
We provide the service with reasonable skill and care. Where we are liable to a school, that liability is limited to the fees that school paid us in the twelve months before the claim.
Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited — including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for obligations under POPIA or the Consumer Protection Act. Nor does it shift the school's own duty of care for its learners onto a piece of software.
If you are a parent or guardian
You did not sign anything — your school did, and it enrolled you because a child in your care attends there. You receive notifications and reach the parent portal through a private link sent to you. Two things are worth knowing:
- Your link is private. It opens your children's records without a password. Do not forward it. If you think it has been seen by someone else, ask the school to reissue it — the old one stops working immediately.
- You control your notifications. Switch any channel off from the portal at any time. Emergency and lockdown alerts always send.
Questions about your child's records go to the school first, because the school holds the relationship and the authority to act. Your rights over that information are set out in the privacy policy.
Changes, and the law that applies
If these terms change materially, we will tell every school using MySentinel before the change takes effect. The date at the top always reflects the current version.
These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the South African courts have jurisdiction. If we disagree, we would rather talk first — email am@binary-solutions.co.za and a person will answer.
A school's signed order or service agreement, where one exists, sets out the specific commercial terms for that school. Where it conflicts with this page, the signed agreement wins.
Procurement
Need these terms in front of your governing body?
We'll send the agreement, the POPIA operator terms, and answer whatever your school's legal or IT contact needs answered.