Privacy Policy

The short version

You can use Lernela without an account, and if you do, your learning data never leaves your phone. Signing in is optional and exists so your progress survives a lost device.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use your voice recordings or your practice text to train any model of our own.

What we collect

• Account details (only if you sign in). Your email address, display name and a user id, through Google Sign-In or Sign in with Apple. We never see your password.
• Learning data. Your flashcards, decks, saved words, XP, streak, level and lesson progress. Stored on your device always; also stored in our database when you are signed in, so it can sync.
• A device identifier. On Android this is the app-scoped ANDROID_ID; on iOS a random identifier we generate and keep in the Keychain. It is used for one purpose: counting your daily free allowance of speech, text-to-speech and AI practice, so the limit cannot be reset by clearing app data. It is not a cross-app advertising identifier.
• Voice recordings. When you tap record to practise pronunciation, that audio clip is sent for transcription. See below.
• Usage analytics. Which screens you open and which features you use, in aggregate, so we can see what is worth improving.
• Crash reports. Diagnostic information when the app crashes, including device model and OS version.
• Feedback you send us. Only what you type into the feedback form, plus an optional rating.

Your voice recordings

Pronunciation practice works by recording a short clip and comparing what you said to the line you were reading.

The clip is sent over an encrypted connection to our server function, which forwards it to Google Cloud Speech-to-Text and returns the transcript. We do not store the audio afterwards, and we do not build a voice profile from it. Google processes it as our data processor and does not use it to improve its own models under our configuration.

The microphone is only ever active while you are holding or have tapped the record control. There is no background listening.

AI practice and translation

When you use the AI speaking partner, the text of that conversation is sent to Google's Gemini model through Firebase AI to generate a reply and a coaching report.

When you tap a word for a translation, that word — not your whole screen — is sent to a translation service. When the app speaks a sentence that has no pre-recorded audio, that sentence is sent to a text-to-speech service and the resulting audio is cached on your device.

In every case we send the minimum needed to answer the request: a word, a line, or the practice conversation. Never your account details.

Advertising

The free tier shows ads through Google AdMob. Subscribers see none at all — the app disables ad loading entirely rather than merely hiding it.

In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland you are asked for consent before any personalised ad is served, through Google's consent flow. If you decline, you still see ads, but non-personalised ones. On iOS you are additionally asked for App Tracking Transparency permission; declining is respected and simply means less relevant ads.

You can remove ads entirely by subscribing.

Who else processes your data

• Google Firebase — authentication, database, file storage, crash reporting, analytics and app integrity checks.
• Google Cloud Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech — transcription and synthesised speech.
• Google (Gemini via Firebase AI) — AI practice conversations and coaching reports.
• Google AdMob — advertising on the free tier.
• RevenueCat — subscription status. It is told a pseudonymous id and your purchase state, not your learning data.
• Google Play / Apple App Store — payment. We never see your card details.

Where data is stored and how long we keep it

Server-side data is held on Google Cloud infrastructure in the United States. When you are in the EEA or UK, the transfer relies on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

Learning data is kept while your account exists. Delete your account and it is removed. Analytics and crash data are retained on Firebase's own schedule, up to 14 months. Daily usage counters reset every day and are meaningless once expired.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. You can withdraw advertising consent at any time from the app's settings.

If you are in the EEA or UK you also have the right to object to processing and to complain to your national data protection authority.

The fastest route to deletion is the instructions on our account deletion page. For anything else, email us — we answer.

Children

Lernela is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects what we collect or why, we will update the date at the top of this page and, where the change is significant, tell you inside the app.