Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2026 (v2.1)

Data Controller

This Privacy Policy describes how the data controller listed below collects, uses, and protects personal data when you use the AI Language Tutor mobile application and the website at ailanguagetutor.app (collectively, the "Service").

We are established outside the EU/EEA. We are in the process of formally appointing an EU representative under GDPR Art. 27 and will update this section with their name, address, and contact details before the appointment takes effect. In the meantime, EU/EEA users may contact us directly at support@ailanguagetutor.app for any data protection matters; we will respond within 30 days.

1. Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal data, each for a specific purpose:

2. Data We Do NOT Collect

3. Third-Party Processors (Sub-processors)

To deliver the Service we engage the service providers listed below. Where required by applicable law, we put in place data-processing terms and international-transfer safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), Data Privacy Framework certifications, or another valid transfer mechanism. Maintenance of these contractual arrangements is an ongoing process; copies of relevant agreements are available on request.

ServicePurposeData sentRegion
Anthropic (Claude API)LLM for conversation and feedback generationText only (no PII intentionally sent)USA
OpenAILLM cascade; text-to-speech (models tts-1, tts-1-hd, gpt-4o-mini-tts); fallback speech-to-text; text embeddingsText and voice audioUSA
Google GeminiPrimary LLM for Pro/Premium feedback generation for users in the EU/EEA/UK; also used for judge / validation rolesText onlyEU/USA (Google Cloud routing)
DeepSeekPrimary LLM for Pro/Premium in-conversation voice turns for all users (selected on the merits of voice-turn naturalness — see backend/scripts/llm_eval/results/2026-05-19_path_a_gemini_eval_RESULTS.md); also primary LLM for feedback generation for users outside the EU/EEA/UK where GDPR transfer restrictions do not apply (country detected from the Cloudflare CF-IPCountry header at sign-in)Text onlyChina (DeepSeek-managed)
DeepgramPrimary streaming speech-to-text (Nova-2)Voice audioUSA (api.deepgram.com)
ElevenLabs (Premium tier)High-quality TTS voice synthesisText onlyUSA
Azure Speech (Premium tier)Pronunciation assessment and shadowingVoice audio sampleEU or USA (depending on Azure region)
PostHogProduct analytics and feature flagsUser ID, in-app events, IP addressEU (eu.posthog.com)
SentryError and crash trackingAnonymized stack traces and technical context; send_default_pii=False set at backend SDK init (backend/app/main.py) — Sentry does not receive request bodies, headers with auth tokens, or user identifiers by defaultUSA
RevenueCatSubscription state and IAP receipt managementRevenueCat user ID, entitlements, receipt metadataUSA
Apple (Sign in with Apple)OAuth authenticationApple-relayed or real email, optionally nameUSA
Google (Sign in with Google)OAuth authenticationEmail, name, Google account ID (scopes: openid email profile)USA
Firebase / Firebase Cloud MessagingPush notification deliveryDevice push token, message payloadUSA
TwilioSMS phone verificationPhone number, country, source IPUSA
ResendTransactional and lifecycle email deliveryEmail address, message contentUSA
S3-compatible object storage (self-hosted MinIO, running on our Hetzner instance)Audio file retention (14 days) and meeting-audio uploadsVoice audio filesEU/EEA — Finland (Hetzner data center, Helsinki); audio never leaves the EU
Hetzner Online GmbHHosting infrastructure (compute, PostgreSQL, Redis, MinIO object storage, nginx)All Service data while at rest on our servers (account, learning, audio, logs)EU/EEA — Finland (data center in Helsinki); processor headquartered in Germany
Cloudflare, Inc.DNS, content delivery network, DDoS protection, and country-code lookup via the CF-IPCountry request header (used for GDPR-aware AI routing — see DeepSeek row)HTTP request metadata, including IP address (transient) and approximate countryGlobal edge network (EU/EEA POPs serve EU/EEA traffic); processor headquartered in USA
Telegram FZ-LLC (Telegram Bot API)Optional delivery channel for daily phrase, vocabulary reminders, and learning nudges via our Telegram botTelegram user ID, chat ID, username, message content (only if you connect your Telegram account)UAE / Global (Telegram-managed)

4. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR Art. 6 and Art. 9)

We do not process special-category data under Art. 9. See "Voice biometrics determination" below.

5. Retention Periods (Art. 13(2)(a))

Data categoryRetention
Account dataUntil you delete your account (+ a 30-day grace period implemented by our account-purge worker)
Conversation transcripts12 months (then purged by our retention worker)
Audio recordings (pronunciation, uploaded meeting audio)14 days, then automatically deleted by our S3 cleanup worker
Vocabulary entriesUntil you delete the entry or your account
JWT authentication tokensAccess token 15 minutes, refresh token 30 days
Analytics events (PostHog)24 months (enforced via PostHog EU Cloud project retention settings); analytics identity is deletable on request via support@ailanguagetutor.app and as part of account deletion
Error logs (Sentry)90 days (Sentry default)
Coach free-text feedback (your written replies to the in-app coach thumbs-up / thumbs-down prompts)90 days, after which the free-text body is NULLed by our retention worker (the anonymized rating and category are kept for product analytics)
Telegram identifiers (telegram_id, chat_id, username)Until you disconnect Telegram in Profile → Settings or delete your account, whichever is first

6. Your Rights Under GDPR (Arts. 15–22)

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

7. International Data Transfers (Art. 13(1)(f))

Some of our service providers are located outside the EU/EEA (primarily the United States, with one provider — DeepSeek — located in China). Where personal data is transferred outside the EU/EEA, we use an applicable transfer mechanism where required, such as an adequacy decision (where granted by the European Commission), the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework for certified providers, the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), or another valid safeguard. Details of the applicable safeguards for a specific provider are available on request at support@ailanguagetutor.app.

8. Sign in with Apple (App Store Guideline 5.1.1)

The Service supports Sign in with Apple. When you use Sign in with Apple, you may choose to share either your real email address or an Apple-relayed private email (e.g. <random>@privaterelay.appleid.com). We store whichever email Apple returns to us. You can revoke our access at any time from your Apple device: Settings → Apple ID → Sign-In & Security → Apps Using Your Apple ID.

9. Sign in with Google

Sign in with Google requests the OAuth scopes openid, email, and profile only. We do not request access to Google Drive, Google Calendar, Gmail, or any other Google service.

10. Children

AI Language Tutor is not intended for users under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you believe a child under 16 has provided us with personal data, please contact support@ailanguagetutor.app and we will delete the data promptly.

11. Voice Biometrics Determination (Art. 9 explanation)

Our voice processing is limited to speech-to-text transcription, text-to-speech synthesis, and pronunciation assessment against a reference text. We do not create, store, or compare voice prints for the purpose of identifying or authenticating you. For this reason, voice recordings are processed as ordinary personal data under Art. 6, not as biometric special-category data under Art. 9.

12. Cookies and Tracking

On the public website (ailanguagetutor.app), we use PostHog (EU-hosted) for product analytics. PostHog activates only after you accept analytics cookies via our cookie banner. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. In the mobile app, we use platform-equivalent telemetry (Firebase and PostHog), which you can disable in Profile → Privacy.

13. Data Processing Agreement (DPA)

If you use AI Language Tutor on behalf of a company, school, or other organization and require a signed Data Processing Agreement, contact support@ailanguagetutor.app. We provide a standard GDPR-compliant DPA on request.

14. Required vs Optional Data (Art. 13(2)(e))

Some data is necessary to provide the Service; other data is optional.

If you do not provide required data, the corresponding features will not be available, but you may still use the parts of the Service that do not require that data (for example, text-only practice without voice features).

15. Security Measures

We use technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal data. These include transport encryption (TLS for all client–server traffic), encryption at rest for sensitive credentials, access controls with least-privilege principles for administrative access, environment-separated production credentials, audit logging for sensitive operations, automated retention enforcement (audio cleanup worker, transcript purge worker), and restricted backend administrative access. No online service can guarantee absolute security. We will notify affected users and relevant supervisory authorities of any personal-data breach in accordance with GDPR Art. 33 and Art. 34.

16. AI Provider Configuration and Training

We do not use your conversation transcripts, voice recordings, or any personal content to train our own AI models. We only send personal content to third-party AI providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, ElevenLabs, Deepgram, Azure Speech) where our account settings, the provider's published terms, or our data-processing agreement with that provider prohibit use of API submissions for provider-side model training, unless we disclose otherwise in this Policy before using that provider for personal content. Routing of feedback-generation traffic between Google Gemini and DeepSeek is determined by your approximate country (see §1 "Approximate country" and the DeepSeek row in the Sub-processors table). If a provider's training posture is uncertain or changes, we will either stop sending personal content to that provider or update this section before continuing.

17. Changes to This Policy

We will notify you of material changes to this Privacy Policy at least 14 days before they take effect, via in-app notification and — if you have given marketing-email consent — by email. Older versions are archived and available on request.

18. Contact

General inquiries: support@ailanguagetutor.app.

Data-protection inquiries: please use the same address and add the subject prefix [GDPR] so we can route your request to the appropriate handler.