Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 4, 2026

This policy covers the Miniglot iOS app and this website, both operated by the Miniglot team ("we", "us"). It explains what data exists, where it lives, and the few ways any of it reach us.

The short version

Miniglot works without an account, an email address, or a sign-in of any kind. Your vocabulary progress, settings, and app-blocking choices are stored on your device. The app contacts our server to fetch a word explanation, a story, a dictionary entry or a list of video clips when you ask for one, and to send a report or suggestion when you choose to. Each request carries a random identifier created by the app, which is not tied to you, your device's hardware, or any account. Videos are played by YouTube's embedded player, which is operated by Google (see "Videos" below). If you buy a plan, the purchase goes through Apple and is checked by RevenueCat (see "Purchases" below). The app also counts which features are used, anonymously, unless you turn that off (see "Anonymous usage statistics" below).

What stays on your device

• Your learning data. The words you have seen, your spaced-repetition schedule, streaks, and quiz results are stored locally on your device and are never transmitted.
• Your own words. Words you add from the dictionary are saved on your device only.
• Your settings. Language and level choices, daily goal, typeface preference, reminder time, appearance, and focus mode preferences. The usage statistics below carry your language, level and first daily goal; the rest is never transmitted.
• Your Screen Time selections. If you enable focus mode, the apps you choose to block are selected through Apple's Family Controls framework. Those selections are opaque to us: iOS hands Miniglot an anonymous token, never the list of apps, and the shields are applied and removed entirely on your device by iOS.
• Your free allowances. How many word explanations, stories and videos you have used or earned is counted on your device.
• The offline dictionary. If you download it, it is stored on your device and words are looked up there, without contacting our server.
• Your reminders. Reminders are local notifications, planned and scheduled on your device from your own progress (the words due, your streak). No server is involved.

The app identifier

On first launch the app generates a random identifier and keeps it on your device. It is sent with requests to our API (api.miniglot.app) so we can apply fair daily limits and count a report once per device. It is not an advertising identifier, is not shared with anyone, and is reset if you delete the app.

Word explanations

When you tap "Explain" on a card, the app asks our server for that word's explanation, sending the word's identifier and the app identifier. Explanations are shared by everyone learning the same word, so most requests are answered from our cache. When one has to be written, we record that this identifier used one of its daily explanations; these daily counters are deleted after 7 days.

Stories

Stories are written in advance for each level and kept on our server. When you ask for one, the app sends the language and level you are studying, the list of words you have started learning, and the identifiers of stories you already have, so we can pick one you can read. That word list is used only to choose the story and is not stored. We keep a count of how many times each story has been served, not who it was served to. The stories you receive are then kept on your device.

Looking up a word

When you look up a word that isn't in the app, the app sends that word, the language, and the app identifier to our server, which answers from open dictionaries (CC-CEDICT, JMdict, KANJIDIC and Wiktionary). Opening a Chinese character's page likewise sends that character, to say what it is built from (Make Me a Hanzi). The word is used only to answer that request: we do not store it, and our server logs leave it out. With the offline dictionary downloaded, look-ups happen on your device and nothing is sent. Downloading it sends only the language you ask for.

Videos

When you share a YouTube video to Miniglot, the app asks YouTube directly, from your device, for the video's details and its subtitles in the language you study; our server is not involved. The video is then played through YouTube's embedded player (the YouTube API Services). Google receives what any embedded YouTube player and any visit to YouTube receive, such as your IP address and which video is played, and handles it under the Google Privacy Policy. By watching videos in Miniglot you also agree to the YouTube Terms of Service. Subtitle translations are made on your device by Apple's Translation framework. Which videos you watched is counted on your device only, for the free allowance.

Purchases

Glot Plus and Glot Essentials are bought through your Apple ID. Apple processes the payment; we never see your name, email address or payment details. To know which plan you have and to restore it on another device, the app uses RevenueCat, a service that checks App Store purchases on our behalf. RevenueCat receives an anonymous identifier it creates for the app, your App Store purchase history for Miniglot, and technical information such as the app and iOS versions, the country of your App Store account and your IP address. It processes them under the RevenueCat Privacy Policy, as our processor, only to manage purchases. We see in RevenueCat which plans are bought and renewed, never who bought them.

Anonymous usage statistics

To know what works and what to improve, the app counts how it is used, through PostHog, a product analytics service acting as our processor. Its servers are in the European Union. You can turn this off at any time in Settings, under "Share anonymous usage": from then on the app does not contact PostHog at all.

What is sent:

• which screens and features are used: the steps of the first-run flow, the tabs, a day with a review, the daily goal reached, a word added, an explanation opened, a dictionary search made, a story or chapter opened or finished, a drill started, a video opened, the paywall shown, a plan bought;
• the language and level you study, the daily goal you first chose, the plan you are on, the language of the app and the region set on your device;
• technical information: the app and iOS versions, the device type and screen size, the time zone and network type, and a random identifier PostHog creates for the app. It is not the app identifier above, and the two are never connected.

These events never contain the words you study or look up, anything you type, which story you read, your scores, or your purchases' details. There is no profile of you, no session recording, and no advertising or cross-app tracking. We do not use your IP address to locate you. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in improving the app, and you can object with the switch above. Events are processed under the PostHog Privacy Policy; deleting the app discards the random identifier.

Reports and suggestions you send

If you choose to send one, the app makes a single request containing:

• for a card report: the card's identifier, language and level, the word, its translation and example sentence, your optional note, your app version, and the app identifier;
• for a story report: the story's identifier, the reason you picked, your optional note, and your app version. We store only a one-way hash of the app identifier, enough to count each device once, not to recognise it;
• for a suggestion: your message and your app version.

We use these only to fix and improve the decks and stories. When enough learners report a story, it stops being offered until we review it. Reports and suggestions are kept for as long as they are useful for that purpose, and are not linked to any identity, because we have none.

AI-generated content

Word explanations and stories are written by an AI model from a third-party provider (currently OpenAI models, reached through OpenRouter). What we send to the provider is our own teaching material: a dictionary entry (the word, its reading, translation and example) or a level's word list. We never send your identifier, the words you are learning, your reports, or anything else about you. AI-written text can contain mistakes, and the app says so wherever it appears.

What we do not collect

• No accounts, names, email addresses, or contact details.
• No advertising SDKs, no advertising identifiers, no cross-app tracking, no fingerprinting.
• No location data, contacts, photos, or voice recordings.
• No record of your learning progress: it never leaves your device.
• Nothing is sold or shared for advertising. The only third parties that hear from the app directly are YouTube, when you watch a video, RevenueCat, to manage purchases, and PostHog, for the anonymous usage statistics you can turn off.

Permissions the app asks for

• Notifications (optional): used solely for the reminders you configure.
• Family Controls / Screen Time (optional, off by default): used solely to shield the apps you pick until your daily reviews are done. Miniglot itself is never blocked.
• Microphone and Speech Recognition (optional): used only when you tap the microphone to read a sentence aloud. Your voice is turned into text by Apple's speech recognition, which may process it on Apple's servers under Apple's own privacy policy. The app compares that text with the sentence on your device. We never receive your voice or what you said.
• Speech: pronunciation is synthesized on your device by iOS. Nothing you hear is sent anywhere.

This website

This site is a static page. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and loads no third-party trackers. Fonts and media are self-hosted.

Children

Miniglot asks no one, of any age, for personal data. The usage statistics above are the same for everyone and can be turned off. Focus mode can be used by a parent or guardian through Apple's own Family Controls settings.

Changes to this policy

If a future version of Miniglot changes what data exists or where it goes (for example, optional accounts or sync), this page will be updated before that version ships, and the date at the top will change. This version added anonymous usage statistics (PostHog).

Your rights (GDPR)

We operate from France, so the GDPR applies. The only data we might hold about you is a report or suggestion you sent, the daily counters tied to the app identifier, which are deleted after 7 days, if you bought a plan, the anonymous purchase record kept by RevenueCat, and the usage statistics above, which cannot be traced back to you. You may ask us at any time to access, correct, or delete it, or to object to its processing. Since we cannot tell who you are, tell us roughly when you sent it and what it said so we can find it. Deleting the app also discards its identifier. Write to us and we will answer within one month. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the CNIL (cnil.fr).

Contact

Questions, or a request to delete a report you sent: support@miniglot.app.

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