Privacy policy

Last updated November 5, 2026

Spoken Spelling Bee is built to need as little about you as possible. There is no account, and most of the app works on your phone alone. This policy explains what the app keeps, what it sends, and why.

In short

No sign-in. We never ask for your name, email address or phone number.
No ads, no analytics, no tracking, and nothing is sold.
Your lists, scores and settings stay on your phone.
Letters you spell aloud are heard on your phone. The recording is never sent to us or anyone else.
The app talks to our server to fetch the premium voice, to check purchases and, for subscribers who allow it, to make AI lists and meanings.
When the app is set up for a child under 13, nothing the child types leaves the phone.

1. Who we are

Spoken Spelling Bee ("the app") is made by Mardini Labs ("we", "us"). We are responsible for the data described here. You can reach us at support@spokenspellingbee.com.

This policy covers the app on iPhone, iPad and Android, our server that the app talks to, and this website.

2. What stays on your phone

The app keeps these on your phone, and does not send them to us except as described in section 4:

your word lists, including words you type, paste or import from a deck file
your scores and the history of your bees
your settings, such as the app language and how you like to answer
the year you were born (and, near a 13th or 16th birthday, the month), which you enter the first time the app opens
whether you've allowed the AI features
voice clips the app has already played, so it doesn't fetch them again, and the clips saved for a list a grown-up makes for a child
a random install ID, made when the app is first opened (see section 4)

Meanings and example sentences come from a dictionary stored inside the app. Looking a word up doesn't send it anywhere, unless you ask for an AI meaning.

Deleting the app deletes all of this.

3. Spelling aloud and the microphone

The app uses the microphone only while you spell a word aloud, and only after you've allowed it. The sound is turned into letters on your phone, then discarded. It is never sent to us or to anyone else, and we never receive a recording of your voice.

You can turn microphone access off in your phone's settings at any time and type your answers instead.

4. What the app sends, and why

The app connects to our server only for the features below. None of these requests carries your name, email address, contacts, location or any recording.

When	What is sent	Who receives it
You play a word with the premium voice, in the free daily bee or with the full app	The word or sentence (one that comes with the app) and its language. With it, the install ID and proof that this is the genuine app: on Android, a Google Play Integrity token; on iPhone and iPad, the app's signed App Store receipt. Or, once you've bought the full app, proof of that purchase.	Our server. If that clip hasn't been made before, the text goes to Fish Audio to make it.
You buy the full app, subscribe, or restore a purchase	The store's signed record of the purchase (App Store) or its purchase token (Google Play). It contains no name, email or payment details.	Our server, which checks it with Apple or Google.
Subscribers: the premium voice for your own words, such as a typed list or an imported deck	The words and example sentences of that list, and proof of your subscription.	Our server and Fish Audio.
A grown-up saves a list for a child in the grown-ups area, with the full app	Each word and example sentence of that list, and proof of the full app or of your subscription. Words that don't come with the app get the premium voice only with the subscription.	Our server and Fish Audio. The clips are then kept on the phone, so the child's bee sends nothing.
Subscribers who allow AI: an AI word list or an AI meaning	The topic you typed, or the word you looked up, and proof of your subscription.	Our server, and an AI provider: OpenRouter (which passes the request to the company hosting the AI model) or Google's Gemini.

The AI features stay off until you allow them on a screen that says what is sent and to whom. For anyone aged 13 to 15, a grown-up has to open that screen first.

Like any connection on the internet, each request also carries your device's IP address and the time, which our hosting provider records in its logs (section 8).

When the phone's own voice reads a word instead of the premium voice, that's done by your phone's text-to-speech, which Apple or Google provide under their own terms. Some voices on Android may use Google's online service.

5. What we don't collect

your name, email address, phone number or any account
recordings of your voice
contacts, photos, files (a deck you import is read on your phone) or location
advertising identifiers, or any tracking across other apps and websites
payment card details: Apple and Google handle payment, and we never see them

The app contains no advertising, no analytics and no crash-reporting tools from other companies. We don't sell personal information, share it for advertising, or build profiles of the people who use the app.

6. How we use what we receive

to play the premium voice and make the AI lists and meanings you ask for
to check that a purchase is real and still active, or that the app is the genuine one from the store
to count the day's free words and the subscription's monthly allowances
to keep the service working and safe: limiting how fast requests come in, preventing abuse, and fixing problems

We don't use what you send to advertise to you, and we don't use it to train AI models.

7. Who else handles it

We use these companies to run the app. Each receives only what it needs for its part:

Google Cloud (Google LLC) runs our server and stores the voice clips, the usage counters and the server's logs.
Apple verifies App Store purchases and app receipts. Payments on iPhone and iPad are under Apple's privacy policy.
Google Play verifies Google Play purchases and Play Integrity tokens. Payments on Android are under Google's privacy policy.
Fish Audio turns the text of words and sentences into speech for the premium voice.
OpenRouter, and the AI model hosts it passes requests to, and Google's Gemini write AI word lists and meanings from the topic or word you send.

We share data only with service providers that use it to provide the app, under terms that protect it at least as well as this policy does. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the app and its users from fraud or abuse. If the app's ownership changes, this policy continues to apply to the information we already hold.

8. How long we keep it

On your phone: until you delete it, or the app.
Voice clips: stored under their text, not under who asked for them, so that they can be played again. A clip doesn't record who first requested it.
Usage counters: a count of the words, lists and voice used in a day or month. Each is filed under a scrambled form (a one-way hash) of the install ID, app receipt or purchase it belongs to, and holds nothing else. We keep them only as long as we need them to apply the allowances.
Purchase checks: the server remembers the result of a purchase check for up to an hour, so it doesn't ask the store on every word.
Server logs: up to 30 days. They hold IP addresses, the time, and the address of each request, which can include the install ID.
AI and voice text: our server doesn't keep the topics and words sent for AI. Fish Audio and the AI providers process the text to produce the answer, under their own terms.

9. Children

Spoken Spelling Bee is for learners of all ages, and families use it together. Because some of them are children, the app protects anyone under 13 in the same way, wherever they live.

The age question. The first time the app opens, it asks the year you were born, without suggesting an answer. The answer stays on the phone and is never sent to us. Anyone under 13, or who answers "I'm not sure", gets the child's setup.
The child's setup. There are no AI features. Nothing the child types leaves the phone: words the child types are read by the phone's own voice, and letters spelled aloud are heard on the phone. Buying, restoring, importing a file, links that leave the app, and changing the age answer all sit in a grown-ups area behind a question for an adult.
The premium voice. A child can hear the premium voice for words that come with the app. That request carries only the word and the proof that the app is genuine or has been bought (section 4). We use it only to check the app and to count the day's free words, never to identify, contact, profile or advertise to the child.
Lists a grown-up makes. In the grown-ups area a parent can make a list for the child, by typing it or, with a subscription, with AI. The grown-up sees the list before the child does. When it's saved, the app fetches its premium voice clips and keeps them on the phone, so the child's bee plays them without sending anything.

We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you're a parent or guardian and think we've received information about your child, write to support@spokenspellingbee.com and we'll delete it.

10. Your choices and rights

AI: off until you allow it, and you can turn it off again in Settings at any time.
Microphone: allow or block it in your phone's settings.
Deleting your data: delete a list in the app, or delete the app to remove everything on the phone.
Data on our server: we don't know who you are, so we can't look you up by name. Write to us, and we'll tell you what we may hold, how to point us to it (for example, the order number of a purchase), and delete it.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask for access to, correction or deletion of your personal information, to restrict or object to its use, to receive a copy of it, and to withdraw consent. To use any of these rights, email us; we answer within the time the law sets. In the European Economic Area and the UK, you can also complain to your data protection authority.

In the EEA and UK, our legal bases are: providing the features you use and have bought (contract); keeping the service safe, checking the app is genuine and applying fair limits (legitimate interests); and the AI features, which you allow on the consent screen (consent).

We don't sell or share personal information as US state privacy laws define those terms, and we don't use it for targeted advertising.

11. Where it's processed

Our server and its storage run in the United States. If you use the app from elsewhere, what it sends is processed there and by the providers in section 7. Where the law requires it, transfers rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

12. Security

The app talks to our server only over encrypted connections. The voice clips and counters are in private storage, the server's keys are kept in a secrets store, and the identifiers in our counters are scrambled. Because there are no accounts, there are no passwords or profiles to steal.

13. This website and emails to us

This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party scripts or fonts. The company that hosts it keeps standard logs of requests, including IP addresses, to run and protect the site.

The "Try a word" box uses your browser's own text-to-speech. Some browsers send the text to their maker's online voice service; what you type there stays in your browser.

If you email us, we use your email address and message only to answer you, and delete them when they're no longer needed.

14. Changes and contact

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change affects what the app sends, we'll also say so in the app before it takes effect.

Questions or requests: support@spokenspellingbee.com.