Privacy notice for parents

In short

• Study Buddy is a spelling practice app for children. Children don’t have accounts or give us their names or contact details.
• Without an account, progress stays in this browser and nothing about your child is sent to us. If you allow analytics cookies, Google Analytics also gets a few counts from this browser, such as “a first round was finished”, never names, words or answers.
• With a grown-up account, we keep your email, each child’s nickname and their learning progress, so they can keep playing on another device.
• Plans and payments are only in the grown-up area. If you pay for a plan, Stripe handles the payment for us, and we never see your card details.
• We don’t sell it, share it for advertising, or show ads. Nothing tracks your child: the only analytics are on the grown-up pages, only if you allow cookies, and they’re switched off while your child plays.
• You can download it, delete it, or withdraw your consent at any time.

Parental consent during setup

Your setup email includes the notice and a link to verify your email and return to the app. Opening that link does not give consent. You agree with one explicit button in the app, and we automatically email a copy. You don’t need to reply or wait for manual approval.

We start saving child profiles and progress to your account once you’ve agreed and we’ve sent your copy of the agreement to your email. If sending fails for a while, we try again automatically. You can use account controls and support without agreeing, or keep playing as a guest in this browser.

Setup links expire after 24 hours. We keep a hash of the link secret, request and email-send dates, and short-lived send counters to prevent misuse. Expired requests are cleaned up automatically. Deleting your account removes its setup request.

What we collect

• About you: your email address and password (stored securely by Google Firebase, which runs our sign-in), and your parental consent record: the notice and agreement wording and version, when the emailed setup link was verified and you agreed in the app, when we accepted and activated consent, and the email provider’s send records. A send accepted by the provider does not prove inbox delivery. No email reply is required.
• About each child you add: the nickname you choose (a first name or nickname is enough) and their progress in the app: which words they practiced and whether they spelled them right, how much help was showing, the spelling lists you type in with their test scores, what your child spelled when a word was wrong (in practice and in tests, so you can see mistakes), a summary of each day’s practice (rounds, how long they took, and each word with its mistakes), their collection and rewards, and the app’s settings.
• Round summaries: for each round a child plays while you’re signed in, how many words there were, how many were right on the first try, with or without help, and which games were played. No words, answers or names are in them.
• Screen time: how many seconds a child spends on each screen each day while you’re signed in (the room, each game, the shelves, opening baskets and so on), counted only while the app is open and someone has tapped in the last minute and a half.
• Cookie question totals: each day we count how many browsers are first asked about analytics cookies, and how many choose Allow or No thanks. Only the day’s totals are kept, with nothing about you or your browser.
• Words not in our dictionary: when a word you type into a spelling list isn’t in our dictionary, we count it, so we can add the words families need. Only the word and about how many devices typed it are kept, with nothing about you, your child or your device. Words on our list of about 10,000 first names and places aren’t counted, so a child’s name typed into a list isn’t sent.
• Early access requests: if you ask for early access while accounts are by invitation, your email, the grades you tick and your note, and when you asked. We use them only to invite you, and send them to our own inbox so we see each request.
• Feedback you send: if you send us feedback from the app, your message and email, and what was on screen when you tapped the feedback button: the screen and the word being practiced, a child’s profile number (not their name), the app’s settings, the kind of device and browser, and any recent error messages. You see these details before sending. We keep it to improve the app until you delete your account.
• Ratings you give: if you rate Study Buddy (1 to 5 stars, with an optional title and review), the rating with your email, the app’s version and your browser’s language. We keep it until you delete your account, and you can change it any time.
• Your family’s plan: which plan your family has and its dates: a free plan we gave you during the pilot, with its last day, or a paid plan, monthly or yearly, with its status and when it renews or ends. If you pay, also the numbers Stripe uses for your family and its subscription. No card details: you type those on Stripe’s page, and they go straight to Stripe.
• About the device: a random device number, so only one device saves a child’s progress at a time. It isn’t linked to the device’s hardware or used for anything else.

Children only spell words and tap buttons. They aren’t asked for any personal information, and we don’t collect more than the app needs to work.

How we use it

• To save each child’s progress so they can continue on any device you sign in on.
• To choose the next words for them and show you how they’re doing.
• To check that Study Buddy helps children learn, and to see which parts they use most so we can improve it, from the round summaries and screen time of all families in the pilot, looked at as totals by the Study Buddy team.
• To give your family what its plan includes and, if you pay, to keep your plan in step with your payments.
• To send you account emails: your invitation to the pilot, verifying your email, resetting your password, confirming your consent, and reminders before your plan ends or a yearly plan renews.

Who else handles it

• Google Firebase stores accounts and progress for us, and runs our server code (such as keeping your plan up to date), in the United States. Google handles it only to run the service for us, under its data processing terms.
• Resend sends our emails to you (the invitation, verifying your email, resetting your password, confirming your consent, reminders before your plan ends or renews), and an early access request to our inbox, in the United States. It gets your email address and the message, never anything about your child, and handles them only to deliver them for us.
• Stripe handles payments for us, only if you choose a paid plan. When you open its checkout, Stripe gets your email and a number for your family, never a child’s name or progress. What you type on Stripe’s pages (your card, and the name and address that go with it) goes straight to Stripe and never reaches us. Stripe tells us when your plan or its payments change. It keeps its own records of payments under its privacy policy, as the law requires (for example for taxes and to prevent fraud), and may email you receipts and reminders about your plan, such as when a card is about to expire.
• Word lookups: when a grown-up taps “Look it up online” in the list editor, that word (and nothing else) is sent to free dictionary services.
• Google Analytics, only if you allow cookies, measures how grown-ups use the grown-up pages (setup, signing up, the grown-up area): which page, the campaign tags of the link that brought you here, and steps such as “account created”, with the number of words pasted. Google also records the kind of device and browser, and the approximate location (down to the city) it works out from the connection. In a browser used without an account, it also gets each of these once, the next time a grown-up page opens: a first round finished, five rounds finished, rounds on two different days and on seven, and the free limit reached. It sets cookies in this browser, is switched off while your child plays, and never gets names, words, answers, emails or progress, or anything from a signed-in child. We use it only to understand and improve how Study Buddy is used: its advertising features and Google signals are off, and it isn’t used to contact anyone or to build a profile of anyone.
• Voices: words are read aloud by your device’s own voices. Some devices use online voices, which send the text being read to the device maker.
• Dictating feedback: if you tap 🎤 Speak in the feedback form, your browser’s own speech recognition turns your voice into text. Chrome sends the audio to Google for this, and Safari may send it to Apple. We get only the words, and keep no audio.

We don’t give or sell your family’s information to anyone else.

How long we keep it

• Your account and your children’s progress are kept until you delete them, even if you stop using the app.
• Round summaries and screen time are scheduled for automatic deletion after 13 months. Deletion can take up to another day.
• We also keep up to seven earlier copies of each child’s progress, one for each day of the week they play, so you can go back after a mistake. Each is replaced when that day of the week comes round again.
• When you remove a child or delete your account, their progress is deleted right away. We don’t keep backups.
• An early access request is deleted when we invite you, when we decide not to, or after 12 months at the most, and when you delete your account. To have it deleted sooner, email hello@studybuddylearning.app.
• Your family’s plan is kept until you delete your account. Deleting it also ends a paid plan straight away and deletes your family from Stripe; Stripe keeps its records of past payments as the law requires.
• Each device keeps its own copy of the progress played on it. Turn off “Keep me signed in on this device” on a shared device to remove it when you sign out.

Your choices

• See everything we keep: Grown-ups → Account → Download your family’s data.
• Delete a child’s information: Grown-ups → Account → Remove next to the child.
• Change or cancel a paid plan, or update your card: Grown-ups → Account → Your plan → Manage plan, which opens Stripe’s page. How cancelling and refunds work is in the terms of service.
• Delete everything: Grown-ups → Account → Delete account.
• Stop us saving more: Grown-ups → Account → Withdraw consent. Your children can still play without an account, on the device only.
• Analytics cookies: change your choice for this browser in the app. Manage analytics cookies in the app.
• Questions or requests: email hello@studybuddylearning.app. We’ll answer and act on requests from a child’s parent or guardian.

Who we are

Study Buddy Learning
hello@studybuddylearning.app

Changes

If we change what we collect or how we use it, we’ll ask you to read and agree to the new notice before saving anything more.

Version 8: parental consent now uses the emailed setup link and one agreement in the app, followed by an automatic receipt. We keep the notice and agreement wording, their version and dates, and the email-send records. No email reply is required.