Vocamo Privacy Policy
Who we are
Vocamo (the website vocamo.app and the Vocamo mobile apps) is operated by Andrey Kuzmin, a private individual, who is the controller of your personal data. There is no company behind the app.
Contact for any privacy question or request: info@vocamo.app.
Vocamo has no ads, does not sell or share your data, and does not track you across other apps or websites.
What we collect and why
If you use Vocamo without signing in
- When you choose your language pair, the app creates an anonymous account for you on our servers. It has no email address or name: it is tied to a random secret stored on your device, of which we keep only a fingerprint (hash). Your courses, words, collections, learning progress, settings and reminder schedule are stored in this account, the same way as for signed-in users (see below). If you later sign in with Google or Apple, this data moves into that account.
- Words you look up are sent to our servers to fetch their dictionary entries.
- Product analytics events, as described in Product analytics.
If you sign in with Google or Apple
- Account: your email address, name and the account identifier from Google or Apple; with Google also your profile picture link. With Google we request only the email and profile permissions. With Apple the email may be a private relay address if you choose “Hide My Email”, and Apple shares your name only on the first sign-in. We never see your Google or Apple password. Used to create your account and sign you in.
- Learning data: your courses (language pairs), collections and the words in them, collection names, descriptions and tags, learning progress and review schedule, favourites, daily activity and streaks, settings and reminder schedule. Used to provide the app and sync it between your devices.
- Sign-in sessions: refresh tokens that keep you signed in.
- Reports you choose to send about a dictionary entry or picture, including your comment. Used to fix the dictionary.
- Reminder notifications (if you turn them on): on the website, your browser's push subscription and browser user-agent string; in the app, the push token Apple (iOS) or Google (Android) issues for your device. Together with your time zone (its name, for example Europe/Berlin, and its current offset from UTC) and interface language, they are used to send the daily reminder at the right time and in your language. The push token is not an advertising or hardware identifier; it is deleted when you turn reminders off, sign out or delete your account.
Technical data
Like any web service, our servers see your IP address, the requested address and your browser or app user-agent when you connect. They are used for security, abuse protection (limiting the number of dictionary searches without signing in) and troubleshooting. They are not stored in a database; server logs are not archived and are overwritten automatically, normally within a day.
Stored on your device
The app keeps your sign-in tokens (without signing in, also the secret of your anonymous account), settings, offline copies of dictionary entries and pictures and your recent searches in the browser or app storage on your device. On the website, signing in also sets two sign-in cookies. If you allow product analytics, the app also stores your analytics identifier and your choice on the device. We use no advertising cookies.
Product analytics
We (Andrey Kuzmin, see Who we are) collect product analytics to understand which features work, where people get stuck and which of our ads or links bring people who keep learning — and to improve the app. Analytics is on by default; you can turn it off at any time with the Product analytics switch in your profile.
What an event contains
- the event name and time, for example app opened, screen viewed, training started or completed, word added, course selected, a reminder opened, a purchase started or completed;
- details of that action: the screen, the training type and number of cards, the language pair, for dictionary searches the searched word, number of results, response time and errors;
- the app version and platform (iOS, Android or web);
- a random analytics identifier created when you first open the app and stored on your device, a session identifier, and which ad campaign or link led you to install the app (read from Google Play’s install referrer or Apple’s attribution token on your device);
- your account ID (without signing in, the ID of your anonymous account). When you sign in, events recorded earlier under your analytics identifier on that device are linked to your account.
We do not record your IP address, device model or advertising ID with events, and the analytics identifier is not an advertising identifier: it is used only by us and never shared with ad networks.
Your choice
- If you turn analytics off later, the app stops sending events, and we delete the events collected under your analytics identifier and, if you are signed in, those linked to your account.
- We keep a record of each change of this setting (analytics identifier, account ID if signed in, whether analytics was turned on or off, the date and the version of this policy).
Who receives it and how long it is kept
Events go to our servers in Germany and are forwarded to PostHog, our analytics provider, in the EU (see Who processes data for us). Events are deleted 13 months after we receive them, earlier if you turn analytics off or delete your account; we keep only counts that do not identify anyone.
Purchases
Vocamo Plus is sold only through the App Store and Google Play. Apple or Google takes the payment under their own terms and privacy policy; we never see your card or payment details.
To give you Plus on all your devices and restore purchases, we and our provider RevenueCat receive from the store: a random purchase identifier linked to your Vocamo account, the product, price and currency, the store, the dates of purchase, renewal and expiry, whether it is a free trial, and cancellations and refunds. Purchases require an account. We also count purchase events in product analytics.
Cancelling and refunds. You cancel a subscription in your App Store or Google Play account settings; it then stays active until the end of the paid period. Deleting your Vocamo account does not cancel it, so cancel first. Refunds are handled by the store: on the App Store you can request one from Apple (at reportaproblem.apple.com or from the app, where available) and Apple decides; on Google Play, cancelling stops future renewals but does not refund the current period, and refund requests go through Google Play under its refund policy.
Legal bases (GDPR)
- Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): your account, learning data, sessions, dictionary look-ups and purchases — needed to provide the service you asked for.
- Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): reminder notifications. You can withdraw consent at any time by turning reminders off in the app or in your browser.
- Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): product analytics, including which campaign or link led you to the app — you can object at any time with the Product analytics switch in your profile; technical data and reports (security, abuse prevention, dictionary quality).
Who processes data for us
We use these service providers. Those marked as processors act only on our instructions under a data processing agreement:
- Hetzner Online (Germany) — servers, databases and database backups, located in Nuremberg, Germany.
- Cloudflare — network protection and content delivery for vocamo.app, and storage of the app files and dictionary pictures. Your connection passes through Cloudflare, so it sees your IP address and request.
- PostHog (processor, data stored in the EU, Frankfurt) — product analytics: receives the events described in Product analytics, with the analytics identifier and account ID.
- RevenueCat (processor, United States) — manages subscriptions: receives the purchase data described in Purchases, the random purchase identifier and your device’s language and currency settings, never your name or email. Like any web service, it sees your IP address when the app connects to it.
- Google — Sign in with Google and Google Play payments, under Google’s own privacy policy.
- Apple — Sign in with Apple and App Store payments, under Apple’s own privacy policy.
- OpenRouter — AI models that write dictionary entries. Only the looked-up word, the language pair and existing dictionary content are sent; never your name, email, account ID or anything else about you.
- Push notification services — Apple Push Notification service (iOS app), Firebase Cloud Messaging by Google (Android app) or your browser's push service (website, for example Google, Mozilla or Apple) deliver reminder notifications if you turn them on. They receive your device's push address and the notification, which contains only the number of words to review.
Some of these providers are based in or may process data in the United States. Such transfers rely on the safeguards these providers offer under the GDPR, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
How long we keep data
- Account, learning data and reminders: until you delete your account.
- Anonymous account: until you delete your data or sign in (then its data moves into your account). We delete it automatically if it holds no learning data 48 hours after it was created, or after 365 days without use.
- Product analytics events: 13 months after we receive them, or earlier if you turn analytics off or delete your account. Counts that do not identify anyone are kept.
- Records of your analytics choice: kept as proof of consent; deleted with your account.
- Purchase records: until you delete your account. Apple and Google keep their own records under their policies.
- Sign-in sessions: at most 30 days, or until you log out or delete your account.
- Reports you sent: kept after account deletion, but no longer linked to you.
- Server logs: overwritten automatically, normally within a day.
- Database backups: overwritten within 30 days.
Dictionary entries created when someone looks up a word are shared by all users and contain no personal data.
Deleting your data
You can delete your account and data yourself at any time in Profile → Delete account; without signing in, in Profile → Delete my data. What is deleted and when is described on vocamo.app/
Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to access your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to its processing, receive it in a portable format, and withdraw consent at any time. To use any of these rights, write to info@vocamo.app; we answer within one month.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority: in Cyprus, where we are based, the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection (dataprotection.gov.cy), or the authority of the EU country where you live or work.
Children
Vocamo is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact info@vocamo.app and we will delete it.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date at the top.