SkieDo we need consent or a written policy before turning on location tracking?
You should have clear notice and a written policy before tracking location, and in a school setting parental consent is usually expected. Skie provides the controls such as role access and visible management; the organisation provides the notices and decides what applies locally. This is general information, not legal advice.
Tracking where a person is carries more weight than most device settings. Rules differ by country, by whether the users are children or adults, and by whether the device is school-owned or company-owned. Skie cannot tell you what your local law requires, and it does not make any organisation compliant with a particular law by itself.
What Skie does give you is a set of controls that make a responsible policy practical. Location page access is set per role, so you can keep it to the few people who need it. The managed device does not hide anything: the phone or tablet shows that it is managed, and Skie has no hidden mode. Skie also does not read private messages or call logs, and it does not record audio or video.
A written policy usually answers a few plain questions. Why is location collected? Who can see it, and in which situations? How long is it kept? What does a student, parent or employee do if they have a concern? Telling people in advance, and getting consent where it is required, tends to prevent the awkward conversations later. For schools this often means a line in the admission or device agreement. For companies it means an employment or device-use policy staff have seen.
Location history is kept for a limited period, and Skie does not offer configurable retention yet. If your policy needs a specific retention period, raise it with the team before you rely on it.
For wording help on the wider device rules, the school device policy template is a useful starting point, and children's data and school devices covers the data side.