Children’s Privacy

This page is written for parents. It explains, in plain terms, what LingoBuddy does with a child’s information. It sits alongside the full Privacy Policy, which governs where there is any difference in detail.

Only a parent can start

A child cannot create an account, cannot sign in on their own, and cannot add themselves to the app. Every child profile is created by an adult from inside a parent account. During setup we ask the parent for two separate, explicit consents:

• Learning data — required, because without it there is nothing to teach or to report on.
• Voice recording — optional. Decline it and your child can still use every part of the app that does not need their voice stored.

We record which consents were given and against which version of the policy, so you can always see what you agreed to.

What a child can never do in LingoBuddy

• Cannot see or reach a purchase screen. Every locked feature on the child side opens a friendly “ask a grown-up” message. The subscription screen sits behind the parent PIN, and there is no path to it from the child interface at all.
• Cannot see advertising. There is none, from anyone, anywhere in the app.
• Cannot be tracked for analytics. No analytics event is recorded while a child-facing screen is on display. This is enforced in code, not left to convention.
• Cannot chat with strangers. Conversations happen only with the app’s own mascot characters, and they are filtered for safety in both directions.
• Cannot share anything publicly. There is no feed, no public profile, no friend requests and no cross-family leaderboard.
• Cannot link out of the app without passing the parent PIN first.
• Cannot upload photos. The app never asks for camera, photo library or location access.

What we collect from a child

A first name or nickname, age, chosen avatar and mascot, English level and learning goals; what they practise (words, lessons, quizzes, pronunciation scores, stories, streaks, badges); the text of their conversations with the mascot; and, only if you consented, short voice recordings. Nothing more. We do not ask a child for an email address, a phone number, a home address, a school, or a photograph, and the mascot is instructed never to ask for personal details either.

Safety in conversations

Everything a child says and everything a mascot replies is checked against a safety filter. The mascot characters are instructed to avoid frightening topics, never to ask for personal information, and to guide a child toward a trusted grown-up if they mention being hurt or afraid. If something concerning appears, it is flagged for you in the parent area rather than hidden.

How long recordings are kept

Voice recordings are deleted automatically 30 days after they are made, by a scheduled job. You do not have to ask, and we do not keep a copy.

Your controls as a parent

From the parent area of the app, behind your PIN, you can at any time:

• read every conversation your child has had
• see every word they have learned and every lesson they completed
• export the account’s data
• turn voice recording off, which stops any further recordings
• set daily time limits and a bedtime window
• delete the account entirely, which permanently removes every child profile, every transcript and every stored recording

You can also refuse to let us collect anything further while keeping the account, by deleting the child profile on its own.

We do not sell or share children’s data

We never sell, rent or trade children’s personal information, and we do not disclose it to third parties for their own purposes. The limited set of service providers that process it on our behalf — for storage, speech recognition, speech synthesis and safety filtering — is listed in the Privacy Policy, and none of them may use it to train models or for advertising.

Questions or a complaint

Write to destek@dodeyazilim.com. If you want your child’s data removed and would rather we did it than do it yourself in the app, say so and we will confirm within 30 days.