Commercial Separation
How Skolkoll guarantees that commercial interests never influence data, methodology, or presentation.
Core principle
Skolkoll maintains a strict separation between commercial services and data handling. No paying customer can influence what data is shown, how schools are ranked, which metrics are calculated, or how results are presented. This principle is non-negotiable.
Rules for commercial separation
- No customer influence on data: No customer — regardless of size, payment, or relationship — can influence data, rankings, visibility, or methodology on Skolkoll.
- No sponsored placements: There are no sponsored placements, purchased positions, or customer-specific definitions. All schools are treated identically in the data pipeline.
- Identical definitions: The
metric-definitions.jsonfile that defines all metrics is identical for all users — free and Pro. There is no alternative version with different definitions or thresholds. - Same data pipeline: All data flows through exactly the same pipeline regardless of whether a school, municipality, or provider is a paying customer or not. No priority, no filtering, no special treatment.
- Pro = analysis tools, not data manipulation: Pro services add analysis tools — benchmarking, monitoring, export, API access — but never manipulate underlying data. A Pro customer sees exactly the same figures as a free user.
- Revenue from subscriptions: Skolkoll's revenue comes exclusively from subscription fees. Never from advertising, never from data sales, never from sponsorship. There are no advertisers to please and no data brokers to deliver to.
Technical guarantee
The separation is maintained not only through policy but through technical architecture:
- The data pipeline (sync, calculation, publishing) has no connection to the customer register or payment system.
- Pro services' backend reads data via the same API as free users — there is no privileged data channel.
- All calculations (SALSA, merit scores, trends) run with the same code regardless of who is asking.
- Methodology changes are documented openly on the method page and in the corrections registry.
Verifiability
Skolkoll provides several ways to verify that the commercial separation is maintained:
- Open data sources: All data sources and their sync status are documented on the data sources page.
- Automatic changelog: All data changes are logged automatically. See changelog.json.
- Corrections registry: Corrections and methodology changes are documented openly in the corrections registry.
- Verify against source: Every KPI value can be checked against Kolada, Skolverket, or SCB directly — links are available in settings.
Questions about independence
If you have questions about Skolkoll's independence, suspect that data has been influenced by commercial interests, or want to review something specific — contact us at info@skolkoll.se. We take every such question seriously.