ZuolingoPrivacy Policy
Last updated: 10 October 2026
Zuolingo is a free reading and learning app for children in India, aged 3 to 11, used under a parent's account. This policy is written for parents and guardians. It follows the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (India) and the principles of COPPA (USA) and the Apple Kids Category and Google Play Families policies.
In short: no ads, no tracking of children, no selling of data, no purchases. A parent creates the account and gives consent for the child. A parent can delete everything at any time in the app.
Who is responsible
The data fiduciary (controller) is the publisher of Zuolingo (Passionfusion; company registration pending). Contact and grievance officer: support-zuolingo@passionfusion.in. We reply within 7 days.
Parents give consent, not children
- Only a parent or guardian aged 18 or over can create an account (Google sign-in or phone number with an SMS code).
- Children never create accounts, never type an email or phone number, and never see sign-in screens.
- Signing up and adding a child profile is the parent's verifiable consent for us to process the child's limited data described below. A parent can withdraw consent at any time by deleting the account.
- Parent-only areas (settings, account deletion, sharing and any link that leaves the app) are protected by a parent PIN and an adult-only quiz that a young child cannot pass.
What we collect
| Data | Whose | Why | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone number or Google account email and name | Parent | Sign in, account recovery | Firebase Authentication (Google Cloud). The app does not copy phone or email into its own storage. |
| Parent PIN (stored only as a one-way hash) | Parent | Keep children out of parent areas | On the device only |
| Child's first name or nickname | Child | Show it in the app | On the device only |
| Child's chosen cartoon avatar, class (grade), board and language choices | Child | Choose the right lessons | On the device only |
| Learning progress: stars, streaks, pets earned, practice results | Child | Show progress and rewards | On the device only |
| Photos of school pages taken or chosen by the parent (or by the child on a class page, with the parent's setup) | Parent/child | Read the page aloud and make practice | Sent to our AI service (Google Gemini, through our own secure server) only to read the page, then not kept by us. The extracted text and, if the parent saves the page, the photo stay on the device. |
| Voice recording while a child reads aloud | Child | Check pronunciation and give feedback | Sent to a speech-recognition service (ElevenLabs, through our own secure server) for that one reply only. The recording is not saved by us or by the service on our behalf; it is a temporary file on the device that the operating system clears. |
| Anonymous crash reports and a few anonymous usage counts | Device | Fix crashes, keep the app stable | Firebase Crashlytics / Analytics, with no name, no child data, no user ID and no advertising ID |
We do not collect: a child's photo or picture of the child, location, contacts, date of birth, school name, address, advertising ID, device advertising profile, or any data from other apps.
What we never do
- No advertising, of any kind.
- No sale or rental of personal data. No data brokers.
- No behavioural profiling, no personalised ads, no third-party advertising or marketing SDKs.
- No social features that let a child talk to strangers. Class-notes sharing contains page text only, never a child's name or photo, and a child's share waits for a parent's approval.
- No in-app purchases or payments in this version.
Who we share data with (processors)
Only service providers that process data for us, under their own terms, to run the features above: - Google Firebase / Google Cloud (sign-in, crash reports, our server), region Mumbai (asia-south1) where available - Google Gemini API (reading page images and generating practice) - ElevenLabs (speech recognition for read-aloud feedback and, where used, text to speech)
We pass them only the page image, the spoken clip or the text needed for that one task, never a child's name or any identifier.
Retention
- On-device data stays until the parent deletes it or deletes the account or removes the app.
- Page images and voice clips sent to our AI providers are used for the single request and not stored by us.
- Account data in Firebase is kept until the parent deletes the account.
- Crash reports are kept for up to 90 days.
How to delete everything
In the app: Settings, Delete account. An adult quiz and a confirmation come first. This deletes the sign-in account and wipes all child profiles, saved pages, progress and files on the device, and removes our records for the account. If you cannot use the app, email support-zuolingo@passionfusion.in from the registered email or phone number's owner with the subject "Delete my account". We delete within 30 days and confirm by email. Uninstalling the app removes the on-device data.
Your rights (India DPDP Act and similar laws)
A parent may at any time: ask what data we hold, correct it, withdraw consent, delete it, or complain to us (and, if unresolved, to the Data Protection Board of India). Write to support-zuolingo@passionfusion.in.
Security
Data in transit uses HTTPS. The parent PIN is stored hashed. AI service keys are kept only on our server, never in the app. Access to account records is limited to the account owner.
Permissions the app asks for
- Camera: so a parent can photograph a school page.
- Microphone: so a child can read aloud and get feedback.
- Photos (iOS, optional): so a parent can pick an existing photo of a school page. The app does not ask for location, contacts, calendar or advertising ID.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that affects children's data, we will ask the parent again before the change applies. The latest version is always at https://zuolingo.passionfusion.in/privacy.
Contact
support-zuolingo@passionfusion.in