PRIVACY POLICY — LINGOSTIC
Last updated: 30 September 2026
Scope of this policy. This policy applies only to the Lingostic mobile application ("Lingostic", "the app"). Where it says "we", "us" or "our", it means WitStorm, which publishes Lingostic, acting in relation to this app. If we publish other applications, each of those is covered by its own separate privacy policy and may handle information differently; nothing in this document is a statement about any app other than Lingostic.
This policy is addressed to the parents, guardians and teachers who install Lingostic on a child's behalf, because they are the people who need the information to make an informed decision.
Lingostic is an English-learning app designed for children aged 3 to 8. Because it is directed to children, it follows the rules for children's apps, and the app collects no data at all.
Who is responsible for this app. Lingostic is published on Google Play by WitStorm, the developer named on the app's Play Store listing, and we can be contacted at witstorm.contact@gmail.com (see section 11).
1. SUMMARY
• Lingostic collects no personal information. It never sends anything from the device to us or to anyone else.
• Lingostic has no server and never uses the internet. The only thing that can leave the device is the completion certificate, through its "Print / Share" button, which is behind a grown-up check (section 6).
• The app functions fully offline. It does not hold the Android permission required to access the internet, so the operating system prevents it from making network connections at all.
• The app contains no advertising, no advertising identifiers, no analytics and no tracking SDKs.
• The app contains no in-app purchases and handles no payment information.
• Updates come only through Google Play. Lingostic cannot download or change its own code by itself; a new version reaches the device only when Google Play installs it.
• The app requires no account, registration, login or email address. Players are created on the device only; they are not accounts.
• Everything the app saves — such as progress, stars, nicknames and optional PIN codes, all listed in section 3 — stays on the device the app is installed on ("the device" in this policy) and is deleted when the app is uninstalled.
2. DATA COLLECTION
Lingostic collects no data: nothing the app saves is ever sent from the device to us or to anyone else. To work, the app does save some information on the device itself; section 3 lists all of it.
Lingostic does not collect, transmit, sell, rent or share any of the following, and does not save any of them on the device either:
• Email addresses, postal addresses or phone numbers
• Photographs, video, or audio recordings
• Voice input (the app never listens; it only speaks)
• Location or GPS data
• Contacts, calendar, call logs or messages
• Advertising identifiers (such as the Android Advertising ID), device identifiers, IP addresses or persistent identifiers
• Payment or financial information
• Browsing or search history
• Behavioural or usage analytics of any kind
Lingostic never asks for a real name: each player only needs a nickname, which can be anything (section 3).
Lingostic does not sell or share personal information, and does not process it for targeted advertising, within the meaning of the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA) or comparable United States state privacy laws. There is no personal information for it to sell or share.
Permissions. The finished app lists exactly two Android permissions:
• Vibration ("VIBRATE"), for a short buzz when a player is dragged to reorder the players list, when a letter is placed in a spelling or crossword game, when an answer in a game is wrong, when the stars for a finished lesson appear, or when a wrong PIN code is entered. Vibration gives the app no access to any information.
• An internal permission ("DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION") that Android's standard code library adds to apps automatically. It is a safety lock for commands inside the app. For example, a part of an app may wait for a "reload the app" command. This permission makes sure the command is accepted only when it comes from Lingostic itself; if any other app installed on the device tried to send it, Android would block it. In Lingostic, nothing actually uses this lock. The only part that would is a developer tool that reloads the app while it is being built, and that tool is switched off in the version published on Google Play. It gives no access to any information or feature of the device.
Lingostic does not ask for access to the internet, the microphone, the camera, location, contacts, or photos, files and other shared storage. The things it does need no permission at all: playing sound, saving its own information in its private app folder (section 3), and opening Android's print and share window.
Some of the building blocks the app is made with (section 4) ask for extra permissions by default — for example, the file library asks for internet and shared-storage access. The app's build settings remove these permissions, and a long list of others, so the finished app does not have them. Because it has no internet permission, Android itself stops Lingostic from connecting to the internet.
3. INFORMATION SAVED ON THE DEVICE
Lingostic saves the following information on the device, in the app's private storage (its own folders, including a temporary folder). Android keeps this storage separate from other apps, and no permission is needed for an app to use its own storage. Lingostic never sends this information to us or to anyone else. The app also opts out of Android's automatic cloud backup, so it is never copied to any cloud account. Uninstalling the app deletes it permanently; reinstalling the app does not bring it back.
• Players — each player's nickname, colour, the date the player was added, and a random code the app uses to tell players apart; the order of the players list; and which player was playing last: So several children can share one device — at home, at school or anywhere else — and each keep their own progress
• Learning progress — which worlds are completed, the date each world was first completed, the stars earned per world, the total star count, the current mascot hat, which hats the player has already seen, and whether and when the Final Exam was passed: So a player can continue where they left off, and so the Parent Panel can show a "This week" summary
• "Tricky words" — for each player, the English words from the lessons that were answered wrongly; a word leaves the list once it is answered right in a practice round: So the player can practise those words again in each level, and so the Parent Panel can show them
• Optional 4-digit PIN codes (lock codes, like a phone's screen-lock code) — one per player, which a child or a grown-up can set, and one for the Parent Panel, meant for a grown-up to set — until it is set, anyone who opens the Parent Panel can set it: So a player's progress can be kept private, and so grown-up settings can be locked
• Settings for each player — "Big Kid Mode" and whether a grown-up has locked it, and whether the question timer is on or off: So each player can play in the style and at the pace that suit them, and so a grown-up can lock the choice
• Play time — for each player, up to 500 start-and-end times of when the app was open, plus a running total of time spent in the app: So the Parent Panel can show a play-time history; once 500 entries have been saved, the oldest is removed whenever a new one is added
• Small markers — for each player, one showing that the home-screen tour has been seen (and, if the tour was paused part-way, the step to continue from) and one showing that the first-visit hats-shop animation has played; and one for the whole device showing that the players-screen tour has been seen: So each tour and one-off animation plays only once, and a paused tour continues where it stopped
• Recently Deleted — a deleted player is moved to the "Recently Deleted" list, with the date it was deleted: So a player deleted by mistake can be restored within 14 days. After 14 days it is erased from the device for good; it can also be erased sooner from that list
• The certificate PDF — the file made when the certificate's "Print / Share" button is used, kept in the app's temporary folder: So the printer or app chosen in the share window can open it. Only the latest one is kept: it is deleted the next time "Print / Share" is used, and also when Android clears the app's temporary files or the app is uninstalled
About nicknames. Every player needs a nickname, but it can be anything up to 20 characters — for example a made-up name, a single letter, a number, an emoji or "Player 1". It does not need to be a real name. The app never checks it and never sends it anywhere; it is shown only on the device and on the certificate (section 6).
About PIN codes. A player's optional PIN code is asked for when someone switches to that player, and again when the app is reopened after being left. It cannot stop someone who knows the code, or someone using the device while that player's games are already open. The Parent Panel can show and change every player's PIN code; until a Parent Panel PIN code is set, anyone who opens the Parent Panel can do this.
How to delete this information: uninstalling Lingostic permanently deletes everything the app has saved on the device. A single player can also be deleted from the menu inside the app, and then erased for good from the "Recently Deleted" list at any time. No request to us is needed, because Lingostic never sends the information anywhere.
4. THIRD-PARTY SERVICES
Lingostic contains no third-party advertising, analytics, attribution, crash reporting, push-notification, session-recording or social media SDKs. There is no Facebook SDK, no Google Analytics or Firebase Analytics, no AdMob, and no similar service in this app.
The building blocks of the app. Lingostic is built with the open-source React Native and Expo frameworks and other open-source code libraries, which are compiled into the app. In Lingostic, they are used only for the purposes below and only on the device: Lingostic does not use any of them to send or receive information, and the finished app has no internet permission (section 2). The main ones, and what Lingostic uses them for:
• React Native and Expo — the frameworks the app is built on.
• Async Storage — to save the information listed in section 3 in the app's private folder.
• Expo Asset, Expo Font and Expo File System — to load the pictures, sounds and fonts that come with the app, and to delete the old certificate PDF (section 3).
• Lingostic's own sound module — to play the recorded words and sounds.
• Expo Linear Gradient, Expo Status Bar and Safe Area Context — for drawing: colour gradients, the phone's status bar and the edges of the screen.
• React Native View Shot — to take a picture of the certificate on the screen, for the PDF.
• Expo Print — to turn that picture into a PDF.
• Expo Sharing and Lingostic's own share module — to hand the PDF to Android's print and share window.
The pictures and recorded voice that come with the app are credited in section 12.
Google Play. Google collects some information itself, under Google's own Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy) — not through Lingostic, and outside our control. From Google Play, we (WitStorm) can see:
• statistics such as the number of installs and uninstalls, broken down by country, language, device model and Android version. These are totals; they do not name or identify anyone;
• crash reports, if the device's owner has allowed the device to share usage and diagnostics information with Google: the device model, the Android version and technical details of the error, without names or contact details;
• reviews and ratings that people choose to post publicly on Google Play, with the name shown on their Google account, just as everyone else sees them.
None of this is sent by Lingostic itself — Google gathers it — and none of it tells us who a child is.
5. HOW THE APP SPEAKS
Lingostic reads words aloud by playing audio recordings bundled inside the app itself. Every learning word and every praise phrase has a pre-recorded audio file that ships with the app; when the app "speaks", it plays one of those files from the device's own storage.
• No text-to-speech engine, no online voice service, no network request. The recordings are already on the device when the app is installed.
• Lingostic never records audio and never requests microphone access.
• Nicknames are never read aloud, because they are not part of the recorded words.
The recordings were generated in advance from an open-source neural text-to-speech project (see section 12 for attribution) and are then played back on the device.
6. COMPLETION CERTIFICATE
When a player passes the Final Exam, the app can show a Certificate of Completion. It shows the player's nickname, the date of the first pass, and a certificate number made from that date and the player's random code (section 3). It contains nothing else about the player.
• The certificate is made on the device.
• The app never sends the certificate anywhere by itself. It can leave the device only when the "Print / Share" button is tapped and a grown-up check is passed: the Parent Panel PIN code if one is set, otherwise a multiplication question written in words, designed to be hard for young children to read or solve.
• Only then does the app make a PDF of the certificate in its temporary folder (section 3) and open Android's standard print and share window. The person using the device chooses where it goes: a printer, or any app on the device that can receive files — for example an email, messaging or cloud storage app.
• Lingostic never uploads the certificate anywhere itself. Once the PDF has been handed to the chosen printer or app, what happens to it next is up to that app and its own privacy policy — for example, if you send it with WhatsApp, WhatsApp's privacy policy covers it from then on.
7. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
Lingostic is intended for children and is designed to comply with:
• the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the United States;
• the UK Age Appropriate Design Code and the child-protection provisions of the UK GDPR and EU GDPR (including Article 8); and
• the Google Play Families policy.
Because Lingostic collects no personal information from anyone, including children:
• No verifiable parental consent is required, as there is no collection to consent to. The only thing that can leave the device is the certificate, and only after a grown-up check (section 6), so a child cannot share it on their own.
• Apart from a nickname for each player and optional PIN codes (section 3), Lingostic never asks a child for anything.
• Lingostic contains no behavioural advertising, profiling, or targeting, and no data is ever used to build a profile of a child.
• There is no way for a child to contact anyone. The app has no chat, no comments and no online or social features; it never connects to other devices or people. Nicknames and progress are shown only on the device itself, so anyone using the same device — for example a brother, sister or classmate — can see the players list (see "About PIN codes" in section 3). The certificate, which shows the nickname, can leave the device only after a grown-up check (section 6).
• There are no in-app purchases, so a child cannot spend money.
• No links out of the app. Lingostic has no links to websites or social networks and never opens a browser. The only way to another app is the certificate's "Print / Share" window, which is behind a grown-up check (section 6).
• This policy is inside the app — on the players screen and in the side menu of the game screen — so it can be read without an internet connection.
Parents' rights. Because Lingostic holds no data about your child anywhere outside the device, there is nothing for us to disclose, correct, export or delete on request in connection with this app. To remove everything the app has saved, delete the player within the app or uninstall the app; this takes effect immediately and requires no request to us. Any questions may be directed to the contact address in section 11. Section 9 describes the rights you hold under regional privacy laws.
8. SECURITY
Information saved by Lingostic (see section 3) is kept in the app's private storage area on the device, which the Android operating system isolates from other applications. Because Lingostic transmits no information, there is no data in transit to intercept, and we hold no server or online store of user information that could be breached.
9. INTERNATIONAL USE AND YOUR RIGHTS UNDER REGIONAL PRIVACY LAWS
Lingostic may be available in many countries. Because the app processes no personal data and performs no network transmission, Lingostic involves no international transfer of personal data to disclose, and no lawful basis under the UK or EU GDPR needs to be identified for processing that does not occur.
Privacy laws in many places give you rights to access, correct, port, restrict or delete personal data held about you or your child — for example the UK and EU GDPR, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act in the United States, and state laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act. Because Lingostic holds no personal data about you or your child, there is nothing to access, correct, port, restrict or delete, and no request is required. The information the app saves on the device is under your direct control at all times, as described in section 3.
If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area and you believe your privacy rights have not been respected, you are entitled to lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority. In the UK this is the Information Commissioner's Office (https://ico.org.uk). We would welcome the opportunity to address any concern directly first; see section 11.
10. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may update this policy. Every change will follow the laws and rules listed in section 7.
• Changes that would reduce your privacy — for example, starting to collect any information, sending anything off the device, adding a service that receives information, keeping information for longer, or any other change to the protections described here — will not take effect until you have been told about them, both inside the app and on this policy's web page. If a change would mean collecting any personal information from children, we will first obtain verifiable parental consent where the law requires it, and nothing will be collected before that consent is in place.
• Other changes — such as corrections, clearer wording or a new contact address — take effect when the updated policy is published.
Whenever this policy changes, we update the "Last updated" date at the top and publish the new version both inside the app and on this policy's web page.
There are no plans to add online features to Lingostic or to collect any information through it. If you do not accept a change, you can uninstall Lingostic, which deletes everything it has saved on the device. This policy covers Lingostic only; any other app we publish has its own policy.
11. CONTACT
Questions, concerns or requests regarding this policy or your child's privacy in relation to Lingostic may be directed to:
WitStorm — witstorm.contact@gmail.com
Please reference Lingostic in your message so that your enquiry can be directed correctly. We aim to respond to every enquiry.
12. CREDITS AND ATTRIBUTION
Lingostic is an independent educational app. It bundles two sets of third-party material, credited here in line with the licences those materials are released under.
Neither of these projects receives any information from Lingostic — their material is included in the app as static files that stay on the device, with no connection back to the organisations named below at any time.
• Emoji artwork — Twemoji. © Twitter, Inc. and other contributors. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The original SVGs were re-rendered to PNG for bundling, and the fork picture was cut out of the "fork and knife" image to show the fork alone; no other modifications were made.
• Voice audio — MeloTTS. The spoken word and praise recordings were generated in advance using the open-source MeloTTS (https://github.com/myshell-ai/MeloTTS) neural text-to-speech engine by MyShell, released under the MIT licence (https://github.com/myshell-ai/MeloTTS/blob/main/LICENSE). The bundled audio files are outputs synthesised from that engine; the engine itself is not included in the app.