Privacy Policy

The short version

NiHao Guest teaches spoken Chinese to hotel staff. There are no app accounts or servers of ours. Progress and settings stay on your phone. Free learners may see ads. We do not sell course progress.

What the app keeps on your phone

The app saves these on your phone: the lessons you have finished and where you stopped; the phrases you have reviewed and when; how long you studied each day; your settings (language, colours, text size, speaking speed, pinyin and translation switches); a random installation number, from which your invite code is made; the invite code of a colleague, if you entered one; and whether you bought the course.

We cannot see any of this. Deleting the app deletes it.

Microphone and speech recognition

When you practise speaking, the app asks for the microphone and for speech recognition. It asks iOS to check what you say on your phone. If your phone has no Chinese recognition on the device, iOS may send the short recording to Apple to turn it into text. Apple handles it under Apple's own privacy policy. We never receive your voice, and we do not store it.

On a phone with no speech recognition, the app can record you and play it back so you can compare it with the model voice. That recording stays in the app's temporary storage on your phone and is never sent anywhere.

You can turn off the microphone and speech recognition for the app in iOS Settings. Listening and reading still work.

Purchases

The full course is bought through the App Store. Apple takes the payment: we never see your card or your Apple ID details. The app asks the App Store whether your Apple ID owns the course, so that it can unlock it. Apple may give us sales and download reports that do not identify you.

Advertising

Free learners may see Google AdMob ads after lessons. Full-course owners see none. Unavailable ads never block learning.

Google Mobile Ads may collect IP addresses (including approximate location), device identifiers, ad interactions and diagnostics to deliver and measure ads and prevent fraud. We request non-personalized ads, without requesting IDFA access. We do not send Google your progress, speech recordings or invite code. Google’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Where required, Google collects consent before requesting ads. Reopen privacy choices in Settings under Advertising privacy where required in your region. Refusal does not lock lessons or change purchases.

Feedback and inviting colleagues

"Feedback" opens your own mail app with a message already started. It contains the topic, the app name and version, your iOS version and your app language. Nothing is sent until you send it. If you do, we receive your email address and what you wrote, and we use them only to answer you.

"Invite colleagues" opens the iOS share sheet with a message that contains your invite code. We do not see whom you send it to.

Erasing your data

In Settings, "Erase my data on this phone" removes your progress, your reviews and your invite details. It keeps your language and appearance settings, your purchase (which belongs to your Apple ID) and the random installation number. Deleting the app removes everything the app stored. To have an email you sent us deleted, write to us.

Children

NiHao Guest is made for working adults. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes

If the app changes in a way that affects your information, for example by adding accounts, we will update this policy first and change the effective date.

Contact

Questions about this document? Write to Loyalty99@gmail.com.