Clear boundaries for learning data.

What we don't do

We don't sell or rent personal information, show ads, or use advertising or analytics trackers. The only cookies we set are the ones that keep you signed in.

Information stored in your browser

Without an account, your learner profile (name, avatar, goals, language), progress (XP, streaks, lessons, mistakes, mastery, review schedules), preferences, and Wordbook stay in your browser's storage and never reach our servers. Clearing your browser's site data deletes them. You can download a backup from the Profile page at any time.

Accounts and cloud progress

If you create an account we store your email address, display name, username, a salted and slow-hashed password (never the password itself), when you accepted these terms, your sign-in sessions, and your cloud save. The cloud save contains your learner profile and the progress described above, so it can follow you to other devices. Your session is kept in a secure, HttpOnly cookie that expires after 30 days. Signing out removes your progress from that device; it stays in your account.

Usernames, friends, and the leaderboard

Your username lets other learners send you a friend request, so anyone who knows it can find that the account exists. Only people whose request you accept (or who accept yours) can see your learner name, avatar, current language, total XP, this week's XP, and streak. Friends never see your email address. You can remove a friend at any time.

Feedback and correction reports

When you send feedback or report a correction, we store your message, its type, the page you came from, and the email address you choose to give us, so the AfroLearn team can read it and reply. We keep feedback until it is resolved and no longer needed.

Native-speaker reviews

If you review phrases on a /verify page, we store the name you give, how well you speak the language, your region or dialect and email if you provide them, your reviews and corrections, when you agreed to contribute them, and a one-way hashed identifier derived from your network address. We use that identifier only to tell independent reviewers apart; it cannot be turned back into your address. Your name, email, and identifier are visible only to the AfroLearn team. Agreed corrections become part of the course, credited to the community rather than to you by name.

Voice recordings and device transfer

Voice recordings you contribute stay private and pending until moderated, and you receive a private token to remove them. Pronunciation checks process your recording to score it and do not keep it. Encrypted device transfer stores only encrypted data we cannot read; the key stays in your transfer code, and transfers expire.

Where data is stored and how long

• Our servers are hosted by Amazon Web Services (Lightsail) in the United States (US East, Virginia). If you live elsewhere, your data is transferred to and processed in the United States.
• Account data is kept until you delete your account. Deletion is immediate on our live systems; copies in our nightly backups are deleted automatically within 14 days.
• Web server logs record your IP address, the time, and the page requested, for security and troubleshooting. They are deleted after 14 days. Our security tools briefly track IP addresses to slow down repeated failed sign-in attempts and temporarily block addresses that attack our servers.
• Country flag images load from flagcdn.com, which receives your IP address like any website you visit. Videos from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) and Vimeo load only when you press play, and then follow those companies' privacy policies.
• Reviewed course phrases never need an outside translation service. If free-text translation or AI coaching providers are enabled in future, this policy will name them first.

Children

Anyone can learn as a guest without giving us personal information. Accounts are only for people 13 or older (16 or older in the European Union and the United Kingdom), and sign-up asks you to confirm this. If we learn an account belongs to a younger child, we will delete it. Parents or guardians who believe their child has created an account can contact us at [PRIVACY EMAIL]. Please don't submit a child's voice recording or identifying details.

Your choices and rights

You can use AfroLearn as a guest, skip optional features, and clear your browser data at any time. With an account, the Your data section of the Account page lets you download everything we store about you and permanently delete your account yourself. Depending on where you live (for example the EU or UK, California, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, or South Africa), you may also have rights to access, correct, or restrict the use of your data, or to complain to your data protection authority. To use those rights, or to have native-speaker reviews or feedback you submitted deleted, contact [PRIVACY EMAIL].

Security

We use HTTPS, hashed passwords and session tokens, rate limits, and restricted server access. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will update the date above and, for significant changes, tell account holders in the app before the change applies.