Privacy policy

The short version

• You do not need an account to use the app. Every question, quiz and flashcard works without one.
• Without an account, your child’s progress stays on their own device and in your own own cloud backup. We cannot see it.
• With an account, we also keep a copy of their progress and the papers they have built, so their work follows them to a laptop as well as a phone. That is the only reason we hold it.
• We do not use analytics, we do not advertise, and we do not track anyone.
• We never sell or share personal data. There is no third party we hand data to for their own use.

What we store on the device

When your child answers questions, the app records their progress: which topics they have worked through, how many blocks they have earned, their streak, and which achievements they have unlocked.

This is kept in a file inside the app on the device, and copied to your own cloud storage so it moves with your child between their own devices: your iCloud on iPhone and iPad, your Google Drive on Android. That copy is in your Apple storage, not ours. We have no access to it and no ability to read it. Deleting the app removes the local copy.

If you are signed in, we keep a copy too. That is what lets the same progress appear on a laptop, and it is described in the next section.

We also store your settings, such as whether reminders are on and your daily goal. These stay on the device.

If you choose to sign in

Signing in is optional and does two things: it lets a purchase follow you to a new device, and it lets your child’s progress follow them between a phone and a laptop.

If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive:

• your email address
• your name, if the sign-in provides one
• an account identifier created for you

We use these to recognise your account and restore anything you have bought. We do not use them for marketing, we do not add you to a mailing list, and we do not build a profile.

And while you are signed in, we hold a copy of your child’s progress. It is the same information described above: topics worked through, blocks, streak, quiz scores and which flashcards they know. Nothing they have written, because there is nothing in the app for them to write, and nothing about them as a person. It is stored against the account identifier rather than against a name.

We also hold the practice papers they have built, so a paper made on a laptop can be printed or marked on a phone. That is the questions the paper was built from, which are our own, the date it was made, and the score if it has been marked. Again nothing written by your child, and nothing about them as a person.

Both exist so a child can carry on where they left off on a different device, including the version that runs in a browser. We do not read either, analyse them, profile with them or share them. If you never sign in, none of it ever leaves the device and your own cloud backup.

If you use Sign in with Apple and choose Hide My Email, we only ever see Apple’s relay address. We never learn your real one, and that is entirely fine for how the app works.

Accounts are handled for us by Google Firebase Authentication, and the progress copy is stored in Google Cloud Firestore. Both process this data on our instructions as our service providers and for no purpose of their own. The progress copy is held in Google’s London region, so it does not leave the UK.

A note for parents. Children this age normally sign in with a parent’s Apple ID or Google account, so the details we hold are usually the parent’s rather than the child’s. That is what we would expect and prefer. We do not ask children for personal information, and there is nowhere in the app for a child to type any.

Purchases

Purchases are handled entirely by Apple. We never see your card details, billing address, or any payment information, and we could not charge you if we wanted to.

What we do keep is a record that a purchase exists: the identifier Apple gives that transaction, which product it was for, the account it belongs to, and when we last checked it with Apple. That is what lets something bought on a phone unlock on a laptop without asking you to pay twice. It is a reference to a purchase, not a payment record, and it cannot be used to take money.

What we do not do

We want to be specific, because “we may collect” language usually hides more than it says:

• No analytics. The app contains no analytics software. We do not know which screens are opened or how long anyone uses the app.
• No advertising. There are no adverts and no advertising software.
• No tracking. We do not track anyone across apps or websites, and we do not combine data with anything from a third party. The app never shows Apple’s tracking permission prompt because it has nothing to ask for.
• No location, contacts, photos, microphone or camera. The app does not ask for access to any of them.
• No data sales. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for anyone else’s own purposes.

Reminders

If you turn on reminders, notifications are scheduled by your device itself. Nothing is sent from a server, and no notification data reaches us.

Links out of the app

Settings links to our website and to the personal sites of the people who make the app. Those are separate websites with their own privacy policies.

How long we keep things

Progress lives on your device and in your own cloud backup for as long as you keep the app. If you have an account, we keep your account details, the progress copy and the papers you have built until you delete the account.

One thing outlives the account on purpose: the record that a purchase exists. It is kept against Apple’s identifier for the transaction rather than against you, and it is what lets you sign in again later and still have what you paid for instead of buying it twice.

Our server also keeps a short diagnostic log of whether the purchase check worked, so a family who tells us something is not unlocking can be helped. Accounts and transactions appear in it only as a scrambled reference, never as anything we can read back, and the log is limited in size so it does not accumulate.

Deleting your account and your data

You can delete your account from inside the app, in Settings. Deleting it removes the account details we hold, the copy of your child’s progress and the papers they have built. Everything we hold about the account goes with the account. The progress on your device and in your own backup is not affected and stays where it is.

One thing worth knowing before you do it: work done on another device that has not yet reached this one cannot be recovered afterwards. If a child has been practising on a laptop and you delete the account from a phone that has not opened since, that work goes with it.

Deleting the app removes the progress stored on that device, and you can remove the backup with Delete my backup in the app’s settings before you go, or through your own iCloud or Google Drive settings afterwards.

If you cannot get into the app, you can ask us to delete your account instead.

Your rights

If you are in the UK or the EU, you have the right to ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, and to object to how we use it. Contact us at the address below and we will respond within one month.

Our legal basis for holding account details and the progress copy is the performance of our contract with you, namely providing the app, restoring what you have paid for, and keeping your child’s progress with them across their devices. You can withdraw from this at any time by deleting your account, and the app will keep working.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

Children

The app is designed for children, and a child using it without an account gives us nothing at all. There is no profile, no messaging, no user-generated content, no advertising and no way for a child to be contacted through the app. There is nowhere for a child to type personal information, and we never ask for any.

When an account is used, the account itself belongs to a parent in almost every case, because a child this age signs in with a parent’s Apple ID or Google account. What we then hold about the child is their progress through the questions and the papers they have built, and nothing else: no name, no age, no contact details, nothing they have written. We do not use it to profile anyone and we never share it.

Parents who would like to know what is stored, or want it removed, can contact us at the address below, or delete the account from inside the app at any time.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and if the change is significant we will say so in the app.

Contact

Email privacy@11plusblocks.co.uk.