Privacy Policy

Your ID

The first time you open the app, it creates a random ID, such as anon_k3j9x2…, and saves it on your phone. You can see it in Profile › Settings › Account › Your ID.

The app sends this ID with every request to our server, so we can keep your usage events and subscription status together. It is not your name, email, phone number or advertising ID. It is not a password either. If you tap Sign out or Delete account, the app creates a new ID and your old one is no longer on the phone.

Profile, preferences and onboarding answers

In onboarding and in Settings you choose things like your language, level, daily goal, study time, reminder time, subtitle options and tutor. You also tell us why you're learning, what you struggle with and what holds you back. The app uses these answers to set up your plan.

Your onboarding answers stay on your phone. We only get a usage event saying which onboarding step you finished or skipped, not what you answered. Your daily goal is attached to some usage events. When you change a setting, such as your level, translation language or reminder time, the event includes the new value. See Usage events.

Your practice progress, streaks, review list, scores and session history are also kept on your phone. The current app does not upload them to our server.

Email address

If you type your email address into the app, it is saved on your phone only. The current app does not send it to us, and we don't send you email because of it. If you email us, we receive your address that way.

Microphone and recordings

When you practise a line, the app records your voice with your phone's microphone to hear and score what you said. The app asks for microphone permission first, and you can turn it off in your phone's settings.

With Profile › Settings › Audio & subtitles › Keep my recordings on, practice recordings are saved as audio files on your phone so you can listen back. With it off, the app doesn't keep new practice recordings after scoring them. We do not upload your recordings to our server.

The app has no automatic clean-up of saved recordings. They are saved in the app's cache folder on your phone. They stay until you uninstall the app or clear its cache, or until your phone removes cached files to free up space. Export my data does not include them, and Delete my progress does not remove them.

Speech recognition by Apple and Google

To turn your speech into text, the app uses your phone's speech recognition: Apple's on iPhone and Google's on Android. The app uses this in practice, in the onboarding chat and in the goat call's speaking cards. It passes the text of the line you're practising as a hint.

If your phone can recognise speech on the device, the app asks it to do so, and the audio stays on your phone. If it can't, your phone may send the audio to Apple or Google to be recognised, under their own privacy policies.

Pronunciation scoring by Microsoft Azure

SpeakGOAT may send the audio of a line you recorded, and the text of that line, to Microsoft Azure Speech to score your pronunciation. To do this, the app first gets a short-lived access token from our server. Your audio goes from your phone to Microsoft, not through our server.

When Azure scoring isn't available, the app scores you on your phone instead, by comparing the recognised text with the line.

Microsoft says it does not retain or store the audio it receives for real-time pronunciation assessment.

AI tutor chat (Anthropic)

In onboarding you chat for about a minute with an AI tutor: Maya, Oliver, Chloe or Arjun. In the goat call, OpenAI first turns your recording into text (see Talking with the goat). In both cases, the text of what you said, plus the conversation so far, goes through our server to Anthropic. Anthropic's Claude model writes the reply. The goat call sends up to the last 40 messages.

At the end of the onboarding chat, we send the conversation to Anthropic once more to estimate your English level. The app keeps the estimate and a few notes on your phone.

Our server passes the chat text on and does not save it, unless you report a reply. We don't send Your ID to Anthropic.

Talking with the goat (OpenAI)

In the goat call, you hold the mic while you talk, for up to 30 seconds at a time. When you let go:

• The app sends that recording, and the conversation so far, to our server, then deletes the recording from your phone.
• Our server sends the recording to OpenAI, which turns it into text.
• Our server sends that text to Anthropic to write the goat's reply (see AI tutor chat), and the reply to OpenAI to speak it in the goat's voice.

Our server passes the recording and the text on and doesn't save them, unless you report the call. We don't send Your ID to OpenAI or Anthropic. A call lasts at most 10 minutes.

Tutor and goat voices (OpenAI)

When a tutor or the goat replies with a line the app doesn't already have as a recording, our server sends the text of that reply (up to 600 characters) to OpenAI to turn it into speech. The reply may repeat things you said. We don't send Your ID. The app keeps the audio briefly in your phone's cache to play it.

Reports about AI replies

You can report an AI reply that is wrong, misleading, offensive or harmful. In the onboarding chat, press and hold the tutor's message. When a call with the goat ends, tap Report this call. Under a word meaning, tap Report.

The app then sends our server the reason you chose, the AI text you reported, the conversation or subtitle line around it, and Your ID. For a call or chat, that includes what you said. Each part is cut to 4,000 characters. We read reports to fix problems and keep SpeakGOAT safe. We don't send them to AI providers.

Ideas and feature suggestions

At the bottom of Profile, you can tap Share an idea or Suggest a feature and write to us. When you tap Send, the app sends our server what you wrote (up to 2,000 characters), whether it's an idea or a feature suggestion, the app version and Your ID.

We read every one to plan what to build and improve. We don't send them to AI providers. They don't include your email address, so we can't reply. If you'd like an answer, tap Contact support on Profile to email us.

Camera

In the goat call you can turn on the camera to see yourself while you talk. The video only appears on your screen. We don't record it, and it isn't sent to us, OpenAI or anyone else. The app asks for camera permission first.

Usage events

The app records usage events and sends them in batches to our own server. We use them to see how people use SpeakGOAT, find problems and improve lessons. They are not sent to any analytics or ad company.

Each event includes:

• Your ID, the event name and the time
• app version and build, content version, platform (iOS or Android) and OS version
• a session ID and the screen you were on
• details such as which clip or YouTube video (its video ID) you opened or practised, your scores, how long a video took to load, onboarding steps finished or skipped, settings you changed and their new value, and whether you saw the subscription screen

Searches record only the length of your search and the number of results, not the words you typed. Events don't contain your recordings, chat text or email address. Our server saves events in log files by day.

Turn off Profile › Settings › Data & privacy › Share usage data to stop sending events. The app also deletes events that haven't been sent yet. Events already sent stay on our server until they are deleted (see How long we keep data).

YouTube search and videos

When you search for videos, the app sends your search words to our server. Our server asks the YouTube Data API for results. Google receives the search words from our server, not from your phone and not linked to Your ID. We don't log your search words, but results are held in our server's memory for up to an hour so repeat searches are faster.

To show subtitles for a YouTube video, our server sends that video's public link to ScrapeCreators, which returns the video's captions. We don't send anything about you.

Video thumbnails load straight from YouTube's image servers wherever the app shows a YouTube video: the featured videos on the Watch tab, search results and a video's page. Videos play in YouTube's embedded player inside the app, which also loads straight from YouTube. So Google receives data directly from your phone, even if you don't play a video. This can include your IP address, device information, which thumbnails your phone loads and what you watch, and Google may use cookies or similar storage. See YouTube.

Reminders

Practice reminders are scheduled on your phone as local notifications, after you allow notifications. We don't use push notifications and we don't collect a push token. Change them in Profile › Settings › Notifications or in your phone's settings.

Subscriptions

SpeakGOAT Pro is a monthly or annual subscription sold through the Apple App Store or Google Play. The price is shown in the app before you buy. Apple or Google take the payment and hold your payment details. We never see your card.

We may use RevenueCat to track subscription status. If we do, RevenueCat sends our server an event when a subscription starts, renews, changes, is cancelled or has a billing problem, and we store each event exactly as RevenueCat sends it. That can include a customer ID, the product, the store, price and currency, country, transaction IDs and dates. We use it to unlock Pro features and to answer billing questions. The app may also connect to RevenueCat directly to show plans and check your subscription.

Support emails

If you email us, we receive your email address, your message and anything you attach. The "Contact support" links in the app, on Profile and in Profile › Settings › About, fill in your app version and build to help us. We use this to answer you.

Website

speakgoat.app sets no cookies and runs no analytics. Its pages load fonts from Google Fonts, so your browser sends your IP address and browser details to Google. The company hosting the site also receives standard request data, such as your IP address.

The website has no forms. Its "Get early access" buttons open your own email app to write to support@speakgoat.app. If you send that email, we receive it like any other support email.

If you tap a SpeakGOAT short link, for example one in a social media profile, our server records the link, the time and whether your device is iPhone, Android or something else. Then it sends you to the right app store or to this website. It doesn't record your IP address or Your ID.

On your phone

Data the app keeps on your phone stays there until you delete it or uninstall the app. That includes your ID, profile, onboarding answers, email, progress, recordings and cached audio. Uninstalling removes it, unless your phone's own backup, such as iCloud or Google backup, has copied it.

Delete my progress clears your progress, scores, review list and practice history. Sign out removes Your ID and email from the phone and turns off reminders, and your progress stays. Delete account first deletes what our server holds for Your ID, then clears your progress, your onboarding answers and your setup test results, removes Your ID and email, turns off reminders and starts setup again from the beginning. None of them removes your profile or saved recordings. Only Delete account deletes data on our server, as described below.

On our server

• Usage events: there is no automatic deletion. They stay on our server until you use Delete account or ask us to delete them, or until we delete old event logs ourselves.
• Reports about AI replies: there is no automatic deletion. We keep them while we look into problems and keep SpeakGOAT safe. Delete account deletes them.
• Ideas and feature suggestions: there is no automatic deletion. We keep them to plan and improve the app. Delete account deletes them.
• Subscription records: there is no automatic deletion either. We keep them while you subscribe, and afterwards to answer billing and refund questions and to keep the billing records tax and accounting law requires.
• Delete account in the app deletes, straight away, everything our server keeps for Your ID: usage events, reports, ideas and feature suggestions, subscription status and records of subscription changes. If you email us Your ID instead, we do the same within 30 days. RevenueCat, Apple and Google keep their own purchase records.
• YouTube search results: in memory for up to one hour, not linked to you.
• Request counts: to stop abuse, our server counts requests from each ID and IP address in its memory. The counts are cleared every day and aren't saved.
• Short link clicks: kept with no set period. They aren't linked to you.
• Chat text, reply text and goat call recordings: passed on to the provider and not saved.

Providers keep data under their own terms, as described in AI in SpeakGOAT.

Support emails

We keep your emails as long as we need to handle your request and keep a record of it. Ask us, and we'll delete them unless we must keep them by law.

EEA and UK

You have the right to access your data, correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, get a copy in a portable format, and object to uses based on our legitimate interests. Where we rely on your permission, you can withdraw it at any time. That doesn't affect what we did before.

You can also complain to your local data protection authority. In the UK, that is the Information Commissioner's Office. We'd like the chance to help first, so please email us.

United States

Depending on the state you live in, you may have the right to know what personal information we hold, get a copy, correct it and delete it. You may also have the right to opt out of its sale, its sharing for targeted advertising, and certain profiling.

We don't sell personal information or share it for targeted advertising, and we don't profile you in ways that have legal or similar effects. So there is nothing for an opt-out, or a signal such as Global Privacy Control, to switch off. We won't treat you differently for using your rights. You can send a request through an authorised agent. If we turn down your request, reply to our answer to appeal.

How to make a request

To delete your data, use Profile › Settings › Account › Delete account. For anything else, or if you no longer have the app, email support@speakgoat.app with Your ID from Profile › Settings › Account and tell us what you'd like. We delete server data within 30 days. For other requests, we answer within the time the law gives, usually one month.

We use Your ID to find your data. We may ask you to show that the ID is yours, for example with a screenshot of the Account screen. Without Your ID, we can't link any data on our server to you. If your ID is gone because you signed out, deleted your account or uninstalled the app, we can't find your old data. For data on your phone, use the controls above.

How to delete your data