PRIVACY POLICY

Last Updated: September 25, 2026

1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect information you provide directly when you create an account:

• Account Data: Name, email address, and profile picture (via email registration or Google Sign-In).
• Age Group: Whether you are an adult or under 16, to provide the appropriate experience.
• Learning Data: Progress, quest completion, game scores, streaks, XP, and coin balances.
• Device Data: Device identifiers, operating system version, and crash reports for improving app stability.

We do not collect voice recordings, GPS location, contacts, or phone numbers.

2. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

• To create and manage your account.
• To personalise your language learning experience and track quest progress.
• To manage gamification rewards (coins, XP, streaks, trophies).
• To process in-app purchases securely.
• To send important service updates and optional learning reminders (which you can disable).
• To analyse usage trends, fix technical issues, and improve the app via crash reports.

3. ADVERTISING AND ANALYTICS

Our app includes optional third-party advertisements via Google AdMob. Ad networks may collect device identifiers to provide relevant ads. We use Google's UMP (User Messaging Platform) to collect your consent before serving personalised ads, in compliance with GDPR.

• Adults with consent: Personalised ads may be shown.
• Adults without consent: Only non-personalised ads are shown.
• Kids Zone users (under 16): No personalised ads are ever shown.
• Premium users: All ads are removed entirely.

We use Firebase Analytics to understand how the app is used. You can opt out of analytics collection in Settings.

4. IN-APP PURCHASES & PAYMENTS

Vowl offers optional Premium passes and Coin Packs:

• India: Payments are processed securely by Razorpay.
• Other countries: Payments are processed via Google Play Billing.

We do not collect or store your credit card, UPI, or bank information on our servers. All payment processing is handled entirely by the respective payment provider.

5. DATA STORAGE & THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

We use the following third-party services:

• Firebase Authentication: Secure user sign-in.
• Cloud Firestore: Secure, encrypted database for your learning data.
• Firebase Storage: Profile picture storage (size-limited to 5MB, images only).
• Firebase Crashlytics: Crash reports to fix bugs (no personal data included).
• Firebase Analytics: Usage analytics (opt-out available in Settings).
• Google AdMob: Advertising (consent-based).
• Razorpay / Google Play Billing: Payment processing.

All data is stored on secure servers provided by Google Cloud with industry-standard encryption.

6. DATA SECURITY

• Firestore security rules ensure users can only read/write their own data.
• Storage rules validate file size (max 5MB) and type (images only) for uploads.
• Rate limiting prevents abuse of write operations.
• All API communications use HTTPS encryption.
• Debug information is stripped from release builds.

7. ACCOUNT AND DATA DELETION

You have the right to access, update, or completely delete your account and all associated data at any time.

How to delete: Go to Settings → Danger Zone → Delete Account. Upon deletion:

• All personal data is permanently removed from our databases.
• All scheduled notifications are cancelled.
• Local preferences are cleared from your device.

This action is irreversible.

8. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY (KIDS ZONE)

• No personalised ads are ever shown to children.
• Parental gate (math challenge) is required before any purchase.
• Minimal data collection: Only educational progress data is collected.
• Children cannot access adult features or make unsupervised purchases.
• We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and equivalent regulations.

If we learn we have collected personal information from a child without parental consent, we will delete that information promptly.

9. YOUR RIGHTS

• GDPR (European users): Right to access, correct, delete, or restrict processing of your data. Ad consent is collected via Google UMP.
• DPDPA (Indian users): Right to access, correct, or erase your data, and to nominate a representative.
• All users: You can delete your account at any time from within the app.

10. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be reflected in the "Last Updated" date above. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. CONTACT US

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Email: support.vowl.app@gmail.com