Legal · Draft
Privacy policy
Who we are
Elaüquent is run by [LEGAL REVIEW: company legal name], [LEGAL REVIEW: registered address and company number]. We are the controller of the personal data described here. Write to us at hello@elauquent.com about anything on this page. [LEGAL REVIEW: data protection officer or EU/UK representative, if required]
This policy covers the Elaüquent app, this website, the waitlist and the Content Studio used by our team and Voice Guides.
In short
- We collect what the app needs to teach you and keep you and your family safe, and nothing for advertising.
- No ads, no selling data, no tracking cookies, and no third-party analytics or crash-reporting tools.
- We run our own servers. Recordings are private and only played through links that expire after five minutes.
- You can download your data and delete your account from the app’s settings at any time.
What we collect
Your account
- Your email address and password, or the account identifier from Sign in with Apple or Google. Passwords are never stored, only a one-way hash (argon2id).
- Your date of birth. We store it once and use it to work out whether you are a child (under 13), a teen (13 to 17) or an adult, which decides what you can use. It is never shown to other people or written to logs, and only our staff can correct it.
- The name you choose to show, and your profile settings.
Learning
- Your progress: lessons finished, practice time, rings and steps, placement results, skills settings, badges and rewards.
- Play: scores, challenges, duels and your weekly league.
- Feedback you give on lines: votes, suggested fixes, reports, and recordings of suggested fixes (adults only).
Voice
- Tone Mirror works out the pitch of your voice on your phone. That audio is not sent to us.
- Family Voice recordings made or uploaded by members of your family circle, with each speaker’s agreement.
- Voice notes you send to a study buddy, a circle or a native speaker (up to 2 minutes each).
- For some languages, a speaking exercise or a Studio recording may be sent to our own speech-recognition server to check what was said.
Community and people
- Messages in rooms, recipes and outfits you post, events you sign up for, people you block, and reports you make.
- Your family circle, study buddy and circles, and, for children, the people their guardian approved.
The translator and conversation practice
- Text you type into the translator. Answers from our lessons are found on our server. When a machine translation is needed, we keep the answer for a short time to save repeat work, under a code made from the request, not the text you typed.
- Messages in conversation practice, which are sent to an AI service provider to write the replies (see “Who helps us”).
Paying and getting paid
- Plans are bought through the App Store or Google Play. They tell us what you bought so we can unlock it; we never see your card.
- Native-speaker sessions, coaching and phrase requests are paid through a regional payment provider. We keep the booking, the amount and its status, not your card or bank details.
- For native speakers and Voice Guides: the details needed to pay you, your contract and your statements. We check an identity document by hand before approving you; we do not keep a copy.
Your phone and our servers
- A push-notification token for your phone, if you turn notifications on, and your time zone for reminders.
- Short technical records needed to run and protect the service, such as rate limits on sign-in attempts. [LEGAL REVIEW: confirm server log contents and retention]
The waitlist
Your email address, the languages you picked, and when you signed up and confirmed. Nothing else.
What we never do
- Show ads, or sell or rent personal data.
- Use tracking cookies, advertising IDs or third-party analytics. This website sets no cookies at all (see the cookie note).
- Load any third-party code in the kids’ space.
- Use Family Voice recordings to train computer voices or AI models unless the speaker opts in.
How we use it
- To run your account and lessons, and keep them in step across your devices.
- To keep people safe: age rules, guardian consent, blocking, reports and moderation.
- To let you talk with family, friends and native speakers.
- To improve courses: learner votes and reports help Voice Guides find lines to fix.
- To take payments and pay native speakers and Voice Guides.
- To send emails you need (confirming your address, password resets, guardian consent) and, if you joined the waitlist, to tell you when your language opens.
[LEGAL REVIEW: legal bases for each purpose (for example contract, legitimate interests, consent, legal obligation)]
Where it is kept
Accounts and lessons are on servers we run ourselves, in [LEGAL REVIEW: hosting provider and country]. Recordings and other files are kept in private Backblaze B2 storage buckets in [LEGAL REVIEW: B2 region], reachable only through our server. Daily backups are encrypted before they leave the server. [LEGAL REVIEW: international transfer safeguards, if any]
Who helps us
We share personal data only with services that help us run Elaüquent, under contract, and only what each one needs:
| Who | What for |
|---|---|
| Backblaze (B2 storage) | Storing recordings, lesson audio and encrypted backups. |
| Our email provider [LEGAL REVIEW: name] | Sending account, consent and waitlist emails. |
| An AI service provider [LEGAL REVIEW: name the processor in the data processing schedule] | Writing replies in conversation practice, some translations and first drafts of phrase requests. It receives the text needed for that request only. |
| Apple and Google | Sign-in (if you choose it), in-app purchases and push notifications. |
| Regional payment providers [LEGAL REVIEW: list providers] | Payments for native-speaker sessions and payouts to speakers and Voice Guides. |
Video calls with native speakers run on our own servers and are not recorded. We may also share data when the law requires it. [LEGAL REVIEW: disclosure to authorities wording]
How long we keep it
- Your account: until you delete it. Deleting it deletes its data and its recordings.
- Voice notes: 90 days, then deleted with their audio, unless someone in the chat saved them. You can delete your own note at any time.
- Sign-in sessions: end after 30 days unused, or when you sign out. Password reset links work once, for one hour.
- Children waiting for a guardian: if no grown-up says yes within 14 days, or says no, the child’s account is deleted.
- Waitlist: unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after 7 days; confirmed ones until you leave the list or we launch your language [LEGAL REVIEW: confirm what happens to the list after launch].
- Backups: encrypted copies are kept for up to 14 days (daily), 8 weeks (weekly) and 12 months (monthly), then deleted. Something you deleted can stay in a backup until that backup expires.
Your choices and rights
- Get a copy: Settings → Download my data in the app.
- Delete: Settings → Delete my account in the app. For the waitlist, use the link in any email from us.
- Correct: change your profile in the app; write to us to correct your date of birth.
- Object or ask questions: write to hello@elauquent.com.
- Complain: you can complain to [LEGAL REVIEW: supervisory authority].
Children’s data has its own rules: read our children’s privacy notice.
Security
Everything travels over HTTPS. Passwords are hashed with argon2id and session tokens are stored only as hashes. Recordings are private and only reachable through links that expire after five minutes, given out after our own permission check. Every access rule is enforced on our server. Backups are encrypted with a key that never touches the server.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. [LEGAL REVIEW: notice period]