Privacy notice

Learning without an account

Your lessons, streak days, XP, daily goal and settings are kept in this browser’s storage on your device. They are not sent to us. You can save a copy as a file, or bring one back, in Settings. Clearing your browser’s data removes them.

To show you the newest lessons, the app asks our server whether a new version of the lessons is out. That request says which version you have, and nothing about you or your progress.

If you sign in

First, your age. Before any sign-in button, we ask for the month and year you were born. We work out your age band (13 to 17, or 18 and over) and keep only that, never your birthday. If you’re under 13, no account is made and nothing is kept. While you sign in, the band waits in a cookie on your device for up to 30 minutes; once you’re signed in it is saved to your account and the cookie is cleared.

Then, one of two ways. There are no passwords.

• Continue with Google. Google tells us your email address, and shares the name and picture on your Google account; our sign-in service stores them with your sign-in, and PoliLingo doesn’t show or use the name or picture. Google learns that you used your Google account to sign in to PoliLingo.
• Email me a code. We email you a 6-digit code to type in. Your email address is used to sign you in, and for nothing else: no newsletters, no marketing.

What your account holds:

• your email address and your age band;
• your saved progress: the lessons you’ve completed (and which version of the lessons you first completed them in), how many lessons you did on each day by your device’s date, your XP, your daily goal and the course you chose;
• a random ID for each browser you use it on, with the XP that browser reported, and a record of each time progress was saved;
• records of your sign-ins (when, your IP address and your browser) that our sign-in service keeps to protect your account;
• any team role you have (see below).

Cookies. Signing in sets the cookies that keep you signed in, and the age-band cookie above. There are no other cookies, and no cookie banner, because there is nothing else to agree to.

Team members

Reviewers, editors and admins join by invitation and must be 18 or over. For them we also keep a contributor number, a display name, their role and its language or variety, and when it starts and ends. Admins can record private details (legal name, contact email, phone, WhatsApp, region, an agreement reference, a note on how age was checked, and notes); only admins and the person themselves can see them.

Reviews, suggestions, comments and edits are part of each lesson’s history, recorded under the contributor number. They stay after a team member leaves or deletes their account, so every lesson can show how it was checked. Deleting the account removes the private details and the link to the email address.

Who can see it

You can see everything your account holds. In the app, admins see team members’ details and only totals about learners, such as how many accounts there are. The people who run PoliLingo can reach the database to keep it working and to fix problems.

We use a few services to run PoliLingo:

• Supabase stores the database and runs sign-in, in its Singapore region.
• Vercel hosts the app. Like any web host, it handles your requests, which carry your IP address and browser type.
• Google Fonts serves the app’s typefaces, so Google sees your IP address when a page loads them.
• Google, only if you choose to sign in with it.

How long we keep it, and deleting it

• Your account and what it holds are kept until you delete the account.
• A sign-in that never finished (no age band saved) is deleted after 24 hours.
• Download my data on your account page gives you a file with your email, what Google shared (if you used it), how you sign in, your age band, your saved progress and any team role with its history. The sign-in service’s security records (the IP address and browser of each sign-in) aren’t in the file; ask us for them at the address below.
• Delete my account on your account page deletes your sign-in, email address, age band and saved progress straight away. For team members, it ends their roles, cancels invitations they sent that nobody has used yet, and removes their private details and the email address from past invitations; their review history stays as described above.

On a shared device

Progress on a device belongs to that browser, not to an account. Signing out, or deleting your account, never clears it, so the next person to use this browser can see it and carry on from it. When you finish on a shared device, sign out, and if you want the progress gone from it too, use Reset progress in Settings (it clears everything saved in this browser).

Children

Anyone can learn without an account. Accounts are for people 13 and over; team roles are for adults. If you think a child under 13 has an account, tell us and we’ll delete it.

Changes and contact

When what PoliLingo does with data changes, this page changes too, with a new date at the top. The address for privacy questions and requests will be added here before this notice is final.