Privacy Policy

1About This Policy

MyWika is a language learning app made by NexEdge Studios for people 13 and older. This policy covers the MyWika app on Android, on the web at app.mywika.com and as a download from our site, along with mywika.com and the MyWika community at community.mywika.com. It explains what information we keep, why we keep it, and what you can do about it.

In short, you can use MyWika without giving us anything at all. If you make an account, we keep only what we need to run it. We don't show ads, we don't track you, and we never sell your information.

2Using MyWika Without an Account

You don't need an account to use MyWika, and the app never asks your age to get started. Your cards, decks, practice sentences, streaks, settings and voice recordings are saved on your own device, where we can't see them. If you clear the app's data or uninstall it, they're removed from that device, so it's worth saving a copy now and then with Back Up Everything in Settings, which puts a file in your hands.

3Features That Work Online and Offline

Most of MyWika works offline, but some features work both ways and reach the internet when you use them. Here's where your information goes when they do.

Translation and romanization send the word or sentence you're translating to Google's translation service, which sends back the answer. This happens when you tap translate, and also as you type in Practice while Auto is switched on. When you first choose the language you speak, MyWika also translates its built-in starter words the same way. Google receives that text under its own privacy policy, so please don't translate anything private or sensitive.

Spoken words need an internet connection. They use the voices built into your device first. If your device can't say a word, MyWika asks Google's online voice to say it, which sends that word to Google.

If you'd like different voices, you can connect a text-to-speech service like Google Cloud, ElevenLabs and others with your own API key. The words you play then go straight from your device to that service, under its own privacy policy. Your key stays on your device. It's never synced, and it's never included in a backup or an exported deck.

Downloading a pack asks our server for it. If you're signed in, we count the download on your account so packs can be ranked and creators can see how many people use them.

Everything else that reaches our own server, like your account, synced data and backups, stays private between you and MyWika, as the sections below explain.

4Your Account

Making an account adds Sync, Backup and paid plans, and it also connects you to the MyWika community. You must be 13 or older to make one. When you tap Create Account, we ask your birthday and keep only a note that you're 13 or older. The date itself never leaves your device. You also agree to our Terms of Use and confirm you've read this policy, and we keep the date you agreed and which version of the Terms it was.

There's no password. You sign in with your email address, and we email you a one-time code each time, from hello@mywika.com. With your account we keep your email address, your username, the devices you've signed in on (the kind of device and its name, so Sync knows where to send your data and plan limits can count devices), and your plan if you have one.

5Sync, Backups and Restore Points

If you pay for a plan, a copy of your app data is stored on our servers so it can move between your devices and be recovered if you lose one. That copy includes your cards, decks, languages, practice sentences, progress and settings. Some plans also keep restore points, so you can undo a change or go back to an earlier copy.

With a plan, your voice recordings can be backed up too. They're kept only so you can recover them, and they're never shared with anyone else. In progress

Your data travels over an encrypted connection and is stored with Cloudflare, which encrypts it on their disks. It isn't end-to-end encrypted, which means MyWika's own systems can read it, but we only look at it if you ask us to help with a problem. We don't sell or trade your data, and nobody else sees it unless you choose to share it. If you need help with your data, contact us at support@mywika.com.

Turning off Sync on a device stops that device from syncing, but it doesn't delete the copy on our servers. If your plan ends, we keep your cloud data for 30 days in case you come back. After that it's deleted and can't be recovered. The data on your devices isn't touched.

6Payments

MyWika never sees or stores your card or payment details. Payments, cancellations and refunds are handled by the service you paid through:

• Plans bought in the Google Play version of the app go through Google Play, using the payment method on your Google account. In progress
• Plans bought on our website or in the app downloaded from our site go through Stripe, where you enter your card on Stripe's own page.
• Tips you give to pack creators go through Stripe, on the community website only, never inside the app. In progress

All we keep is what connects your purchase to your account so the app knows which plan you have: the plan, its dates, and a Stripe customer number or Google Play purchase record. Stripe and Google keep their own records of your payments, including your email address, for as long as tax law requires, even after you delete your MyWika account.

If you delete your account while you have a plan, the plan is cancelled at the same moment, so you're never charged again. See our Payment Policy for prices, cancelling and refunds.

You can support MyWika's development with any amount you choose on our website, mywika.com. It goes through Stripe too, and since NexEdge Studios is a business, it isn't a tax-deductible donation. It isn't offered inside the app.

7The Community

community.mywika.com is a public website. Anyone can read it, and search engines like Google can show its pages. What you post there is public, including your username, display name, profile picture, banner, bio, the languages you're learning, your threads, replies and profile posts, your badges, rank and contributions, and your online status unless you set it to Invisible.

Reactions show on the posts they're left on. Packs and forum replies also have upvotes and downvotes, one per account on each item, which decide how they're ranked. Votes from accounts less than two weeks old count for half. We keep who voted for what so each person only votes once, but we never show it publicly.

Members can't send each other private messages. The MyWika team and community moderators can start a private conversation with you, about a report, a fix to one of your packs, or to help with something, and you can reply. Only the people in that conversation can open it. It's never shown in the community and other members can't see it. You'll get a notification when a message arrives, and these conversations are deleted with your account.

If something of yours is reported, you'll get a notice right away with the reason, but never who reported it. Moderators and the MyWika team review the report, and then you'll hear what happened: closed, hidden, or a request to fix something. The person who reported it hears the result too. Every moderator action is logged.

If your account is banned from the community, your profile and posts are removed, and you can no longer post, reply, vote, react or publish. You can still browse the community and download packs, and the MyWika app, Sync and Backup keep working. To stop someone from simply making a new account to post again, we keep three things about a ban even if the account is later deleted: a scrambled copy (a "hash") of the email address, the old account number, and the reason and date of the ban. The hash can't be turned back into the email address and is only used to check whether a new sign-up matches a ban. In progress

Posts can include YouTube videos and pictures linked from other websites. When you view one, it loads from YouTube or that website, which sees your device's IP address like any site you visit.

You can block a member from their profile or from any of their posts. Their posts are hidden from you, they can't notify you, and you can't follow or reply to each other. You can both still see each other's profiles, they aren't told, and only you can unblock them, from Blocked Members in Settings. The MyWika team and moderators can't be blocked, so a report can always reach you.

Packs you publish show your username as their creator. You can hand a pack over to another member by typing their username. They're asked to accept it, and once they do, it shows their name instead and they look after it. If they turn it down or don't answer in time, it comes back to you. We keep a record of who first made each pack and each time it changed owners, so it's always clear whose it is. In progress

You can also share a pack with a code, so a friend or a class can download it straight from you without searching the community. Anyone who has the code can download that pack. In progress

Everyone agrees to our Terms of Use, which include the Community Guidelines, when they create an account, so nobody can post without agreeing first.

If we open a Discord server, Discord runs it under its own privacy policy.

8Feedback

Help & Feedback opens our Contact page, mywika.com/contact. What you send (your message, email, and any name, username or device you add) is saved on our server and sent to our support inbox so we can read it and answer you. We email you a receipt with a ticket number.

If you join the beta or the launch list on mywika.com, we keep your email, which list you joined and the device you picked, so we can email you about MyWika. You're only added after you tap the confirm link we send, and every email has a link to leave the list.

9Notifications and Email

If you turn on notifications, we save an address for your device so we can reach it: a Firebase token in the Android app, or a web push address in your browser. You can turn off each notification, or all of them, in Settings. Turning them all off, or signing out, removes that address from our server.

Our emails come from hello@mywika.com. If you have an account, we'll email you your sign-in codes, and we'll let you know about important changes, like an update to these policies or to your plan. We don't need your permission for those, because they're about your account.

You can also sign up for MyWika updates, news about the app sent now and then. We only send them after you confirm your email address, and every one has a link to unsubscribe in one tap. We keep your email address and the date you signed up, and we delete them when you unsubscribe. In progress

When you write to support@mywika.com or hello@mywika.com, your message and our replies are kept in our email, which Google Workspace runs, so we can help you and keep track of the conversation.

10What We Don't Do

We don't show ads, and we don't use analytics or tracking tools like Google Analytics or Firebase Analytics in the app or on our sites. We don't sell or rent your information. We don't use your cards, recordings or posts to train AI, and we don't use them or sell them for any other purpose. They're used only to run MyWika for you.

11Services We Use

A few companies help us run MyWika, and each has its own privacy policy:

• Cloudflare runs our server, database, file storage and sign-in emails, and protects our sites from attacks.
• Stripe and Google Play handle payments.
• Google provides translation, backup voices, Firebase for notifications in the Android app, and Google Workspace for our email inbox.
• YouTube plays videos that members include in community posts.
• Our sites are hosted by Cloudflare and GitHub. Like any web host, they see your device's IP address when it connects. We don't save IP addresses ourselves.

Our services run on servers in more than one country, so your data may be handled outside the country you live in.

12How Long We Keep Things

Your account stays until you delete it. Cloud data from a paid plan is deleted 30 days after the plan ends and can't be recovered. Payment records are kept as long as tax law requires.

13Deleting Your Account

You can delete your account anytime, in the app (Settings, Account, Delete Account) or at community.mywika.com/delete-account In progress. Deleting it permanently removes everything tied to it: your sign-in, email address, username and profile, your synced data, backups and restore points, your devices, plan record and notification settings, your threads, replies, posts, reactions, votes, follows and messages, your profile picture, banner and any feedback you sent, and reports you made, reports about you and moderator records about your account. If you have a paid plan, it's cancelled first.

Packs and recordings you published are the one thing you choose about. When you delete your account, you can keep them up for the community, shown as from "Deleted Profile", or delete them with everything else. You can also hand them to another member first. In progress

Payment records that Stripe or Google must keep for taxes aren't removed, and copies of things other people already saved stay with them. The cards on your own device aren't touched. They're yours.

14Your Choices

You can get a copy of your learning data anytime with Back Up Everything. It doesn't include voice recordings, your API keys, or your account and community information, so for a copy of those, just email us. You can fix your profile on community.mywika.com or by emailing us, and you can delete everything as described above.

We answer every question or request within 30 days, and we may ask you to send it from your account's email address so we know it's really you. Depending on where you live, privacy laws may give you more rights. Email us and we'll help.

15Children and Parents

MyWika is made for people 13 and older, and so are MyWika accounts. We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone younger.

If you're under 18, you need a parent's or guardian's permission to buy a plan, as our Terms of Use explain.

If you're a parent and your child made an account or bought a plan without your approval, email us at support@mywika.com and we'll help, whether that means deleting the account, cancelling the plan, or a refund under our Payment Policy. If an account belongs to someone under 13, we delete it. You can also report an account with "This person may be under 13." In progress

16Security

We protect your data with encrypted connections, one-time sign-in codes, and limits on who on our team can reach it. No system is perfectly secure, and if something ever puts your information at risk, we'll tell you as the law requires.

17Other Things

We'll share information if the law requires it, or to protect people from harm. If NexEdge Studios or MyWika is ever sold or merged, your information would move with it, and this policy would still apply until you're told otherwise.

18Changes to This Policy

When this policy changes, we'll update the date below. If it's a big change, we'll tell you in the app and by email first.

19Contact

• support@mywika.com
• NexEdge Studios

See also: Terms of Use · Payment Policy · Community Guidelines