Privacy Policy — ExamLingo

Last updated: August 14, 2026

1. Who We Are

ExamLingo is a preparation app for the STEP and IELTS exams. This policy explains what data the app collects, how it is used, and who it may be shared with, if anyone.

2. Data We Collect

2.1 Account Data

• Email and password when you create an account. Your password is stored encrypted (bcrypt) and cannot be read in its original form by any employee or system.
• Before creating an account, a random local guest identifier is stored only on your device (shared_preferences) to allow trial use without registration.

2.2 Educational Usage Data

• Your answers to Reading, Listening, and Grammar questions (to grade them and show your progress).
• Audio recordings for Speaking test sections — uploaded to the server solely for automated evaluation.
• Your Writing section texts — sent for automated evaluation.
• Your points balance and its usage history within the app.

2.3 In-App Purchases

Purchasing points is done exclusively through the Apple App Store (In-App Purchase). Apple handles the entire payment process, and we never see, receive, or store any bank card data whatsoever. All we receive from Apple is a transaction identifier, used to verify the purchase and credit points to your account.

2.4 Technical Data

• IP address at the time of connecting to the server (standard server logs).
• Device type and operating system (for technical compatibility purposes only).

2.5 In-App Usage Analytics

We log simple events about your navigation within the app — which screen was opened and when, and when you started or completed a test — to understand which parts of the app are useful and which need improvement.

What we do NOT log as part of these analytics: any content you write, your answers to questions, your geographic location, or any advertising identifier.

This is purely first-party analytics: data about our own app only, never shared with any third party, never linked to other companies' data, and never used for advertising. The app contains no third-party tracking or analytics tools whatsoever.

Retention period: these events are automatically deleted after 90 days.

3. How We Use Your Data

• Grading your answers and calculating your scores and progress.
• Evaluating speaking recordings and writing texts via external AI services (see Section 4).
• Personalizing study material recommendations based on your weak points.
• Operating the in-app points and subscription system.

We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not sell it to any third party.

4. Sharing Data with Third Parties

• Speaking recordings and Writing texts are sent to speech-to-text and language evaluation services (Azure Speech, Claude API) solely for automated evaluation, and are also subject to those providers' own privacy policies.
• Technical error monitoring on our server via a service called Sentry — it captures details of unexpected software errors on our server (never linked to your name, email, or account ID) solely to help us fix bugs, and is subject to Sentry's own privacy policy.
• We do not share your email or personal data with any marketing entity.

5. Data Retention and Deletion

• Audio recordings are never stored. A recording is processed temporarily in server memory during evaluation only, is never written to any disk or persistent storage, and is discarded the moment evaluation finishes. What is saved is only the transcribed text and the evaluation result, to show your historical progress.
• Usage analytics (Section 2.5) are automatically deleted after 90 days.
• You may request deletion of your account and all your data by emailing us at the address in Section 8.

6. Data Security

• Passwords are encrypted (bcrypt), and every connection to the server uses encrypted HTTPS.
• Screenshot protection on Android (FLAG_SECURE) to protect the question bank's content.
• We never store any payment or bank card data whatsoever (see Section 2.3).

7. Age Rating

The app's content is purely academic and linguistic material (English reading, listening, and grammar texts), and contains nothing unsuitable for any age. It is open to anyone who wishes to test their level.

That said, we recommend users be of high-school age or older (approximately 16+), not due to content concerns, but because the difficulty level of the STEP and IELTS exams themselves assumes a linguistic and academic maturity that may not suit younger age groups.

8. Contact

For any question about this policy, or to request deletion of your account and data:

Email: aa.apptech@gmail.com