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App Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal data the bearlingo app collects, why, how long we keep it and how you can delete it. It describes what the app does today.

Who we are

bearlingo is published by Artur Shokin, an individual, who is the controller of your personal data. Contact: [email protected].

What we collect

  • Account: your email address and password. The password is handled only by Firebase Authentication; we never see or store it. You sign in with email and password only.
  • Account identifier: a random user ID created by Firebase when you register. The app has no field for a display name and does not collect one.
  • Language settings: your native language, the language you learn, the app interface language and your active course.
  • Learning progress: lessons and units completed, words learned, your streak, the vocabulary and review state used to schedule repetition, and preferences such as speech volume and the special-character keyboard bar.
  • Notification settings and device token: whether you want language-fact notifications, the days and hour you chose, your time zone name (used only to send at your local hour, not to locate you) and the push token of your device(s).
  • Subscription status: if you buy bearlingo Plus, which plan, its expiry and trial status, and a hashed reference to the App Store transaction that links the purchase to your account. We never receive your payment card or Apple ID details.
  • Crash reports: technical data about crashes and errors (device model, operating system and app version, a Firebase installation ID, and your user ID).
  • On your device: a local copy of course content and your progress so the app works offline. It is removed when you sign out, delete your account or uninstall the app.

We do not collect your location, contacts, photos, health data or advertising identifier, and we do not track you across other apps or websites. The app does not show ads. This website uses no cookies and no analytics.

Third-party services

bearlingo uses Google Firebase as its processor (Google LLC and Google Ireland Limited):

  • Firebase Authentication for sign-in and password-reset emails.
  • Cloud Firestore to store the account, progress and subscription data above, and Cloud Functions to verify purchases, send notifications and delete accounts.
  • Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver push notifications.
  • Firebase Crashlytics to receive crash reports so we can fix bugs. Your user ID is attached to them.
  • Firebase Analytics may record anonymous usage events such as lessons started or completed, exercise types, feature usage, paywall views and purchase steps, together with your native language. Events never contain your email or any text you type.
  • Firebase Remote Config downloads settings such as the free daily limit and trial length. The request identifies the app installation by a Firebase installation ID and carries no content you created.

Apple

  • App Store purchases: payment and subscription billing are handled by Apple. We receive a signed confirmation of the purchase (product, expiry, a transaction reference). The app attaches a pseudonymous account token derived from your user ID to the purchase, so Apple's record of it carries that token.
  • Push notifications: delivered through the Apple Push Notification service if you allow notifications in iOS.
  • Speech recognition: the microphone is used only during speaking exercises, after you grant permission. The audio is processed by Apple's speech recognition service, which may send it to Apple servers to be recognised; Apple's terms apply to that processing. bearlingo does not store recordings and keeps only the recognised text during the exercise to compare it with the expected answer. You can revoke the permissions in iOS Settings; speaking exercises will then not work.

How we use data and the legal basis

  • To provide the app: account, progress, offline use, scheduling of reviews, notifications you asked for, and subscription status. Legal basis: performing our contract with you (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)).
  • To fix bugs and keep the service secure and working, using crash reports and server logs. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a stable, secure app (Art. 6(1)(f)).
  • To verify purchases and prevent one purchase being claimed by several accounts. Legal basis: contract and legitimate interest.

We do not sell your data and do not use it for advertising or profiling.

Retention

We keep your account and learning data for as long as your account exists, and delete it when you delete your account (see below). Purchase receipts submitted for verification are removed by our server as soon as they are processed. Server operation logs, which can contain your user ID and purchase references but never your email or receipts, are kept for a limited period set by Google Cloud. Firebase Analytics events are kept for 2 months, and Crashlytics crash reports are kept for 90 days, after which Google deletes them.

Delete account

You can delete your account at any time in the app: Profile, Settings, Delete Account, then confirm. This removes your sign-in, your user record, your progress and vocabulary data, your subscription record and the purchase reference linking your account to an App Store purchase, and the notification tokens of your device. Your local data on the device is wiped as well.

What is not removed immediately: crash reports and analytics events already held by Google until their retention period ends; server logs until they expire; and Apple's own purchase and billing records, which we cannot delete. Deleting your account does not cancel an active subscription. Cancel it first in your Apple ID subscription settings, otherwise Apple keeps billing you.

If you cannot use the app, email [email protected] from the address of your account and we will delete it.

Your rights

Under the GDPR and similar laws you have the right to access your data, have it corrected, deleted or restricted, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to receive a copy of data you provided. Write to [email protected]; we will respond within one month. You also have the right to complain to your local data-protection supervisory authority.

Children

bearlingo is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

International transfers

Firebase and Google Cloud run on Google infrastructure, and data may be processed in countries outside your own, including the United States, under Google's data-processing terms and standard contractual clauses. Our Firestore database is located in Frankfurt, Germany (Google Cloud region europe-west3).

Changes to this policy

If we change what data the app handles, we will update this page and its date.

Contact

Artur Shokin, [email protected]. See also support.

Last updated: 26 October 2026