Privacy policy
How WordShine handles your information, in plain words: what stays on your phone, what we receive, and the choices you have.
WordShine is a vocabulary app for Android, published on Google Play by an independent developer (“we”, “us”, “the developer”). This policy explains what information WordShine uses, what reaches us and what does not, who else handles it, and the choices and rights you have. It applies to the WordShine app only. You can reach us at unews.app@outlook.com with any question or request.
The short version
- WordShine has no account or sign-in, and shows no advertising.
- Everything you learn works offline. Your learning (your words, answers, notes and settings) stays on your phone. We never receive it.
- We receive anonymous usage and crash reports only if you say yes. You are asked once, and you can change your answer at any time in Settings.
- We do not sell your personal information, we do not use it for personalised advertising, and we do not build profiles of you.
- Purchases are handled entirely by Google Play. We never see your card or payment details.
- WordShine is for people aged 16 and over.
Who is responsible
The developer named on WordShine’s Google Play listing is the controller of the limited information described in “Usage and crash reports” below. For everything that stays on your phone, you hold the data and the app only works with it on your device. Contact: unews.app@outlook.com.
What we do not collect
WordShine does not ask for, and we do not receive: your name, email address or phone number (unless you write to us), an account or password, your contacts, your precise location, your photos or files (except those you choose to scan or import, which stay on your phone), your calendar, your messages, or the words you learn, look up, write or scan.
What stays on your phone
To work, WordShine keeps the following in its own private storage on your device:
- your learning progress: the words you know, are learning and have mastered, your answers, streaks, test results and history;
- your settings and choices, and the name you chose to be called, if you gave one;
- words you add yourself, sentences you write, words you mark as spotted or used, notes, and anything you report about a word;
- your purchase status (whether Premium is active, which plan, when it renews), so Premium works offline;
- a small private record that keeps a purchase’s source label if a payment is still pending, which never leaves your phone;
- an access code you redeemed, stored only as an irreversible hash and checked on your phone.
This information is not sent to us or to anyone else by WordShine. You control it: you can export a copy (Settings → Your data; the file holds your learning data and name, never purchase details, and goes only where you choose to send it), import a copy, or erase everything (Settings → Reset all progress). Uninstalling the app also deletes it, apart from any Android backup described below.
Usage and crash reports (optional)
WordShine uses Google’s Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics to learn which features people use and to find and fix crashes. They are off until you agree. WordShine asks once, a day after you start, wherever you are, and sends nothing before you answer or if you say no. You can change your answer at any time in Settings → Your data → Usage and crash reports.
If you say yes, these are sent to Google on our behalf:
- events such as “finished a session”, “opened the paywall”, “started a free trial”, “bought Premium”, or “hit a free limit”, with simple counts and labels (for example the screen, the plan chosen, whether an offer was a trial, or a practice mode name);
- the screens you open;
- broad groupings used to understand usage, such as the day since you started (for example “day 3”) or your vocabulary level band, never your answers;
- your app version, phone model, Android version, language, and the country or region and city Google works out from your internet connection;
- a random app-instance identifier that is not linked to your name, email or account;
- your advertising ID, if one is enabled on your phone, which lets us measure whether a Google ad led to an install or a subscription;
- when the app crashes, the crash report: what went wrong inside the app, the app’s recent screen names, and the state of the phone at that moment.
What is never sent: the words you learn, search for or look up, sentences or notes you write, text you scan, your name, your email, your answers, or any purchase credential. Reports do not include the price or card details of a purchase; Google’s own Play integration measures purchase revenue, under Google’s terms.
Why we use them: to understand which features help people learn, to fix crashes and billing problems, and to measure whether advertising for WordShine on Google works. Where the law requires a legal basis (for example in the EEA and the UK), the basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. Ad personalisation signals are not enabled.
How long they are kept: Google keeps event-level analytics data for a limited period which we set to the shortest available, 2 months; summarised reports without individual events may be kept longer. Crash reports are kept by Crashlytics for about 90 days. If you turn reports off, collection stops, the identifier is reset on your phone and previously collected reports can no longer be linked to your phone.
These reports are processed by Google under Google’s privacy policy and the Firebase terms (https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy). Google receives your IP address as part of any internet request, and uses it to work out an approximate location; Google Analytics for Firebase does not log or store IP addresses.
Purchases
Premium is bought through Google Play, as a subscription or a one-time Lifetime purchase. Google processes the payment as the seller; we never receive your card or payment details. Google Play tells the app on your device whether you have an active purchase, and the app checks Google’s signature on that answer on your phone. Your Premium is tied to your Google account through Google Play, not to any account with us. Subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel in the app (Settings → Premium) or in Google Play. See Google’s privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy and Google Play’s terms.
If you ask Google Play for a refund, Google decides it and tells the app, which then removes Premium. We do not receive your purchase history.
Android backup and moving to a new phone
If backup is on for your phone, Android may include the app’s progress file in your device backup, stored in your Google account, so your progress can return on a new phone, or be moved directly when you set up a new phone. This is a feature of Android, handled by Google under Google’s privacy policy. We cannot see or access it. The app’s private purchase record is left out of the backup. You can turn backup off in your phone’s settings.
Permissions and device features
WordShine asks only for what a feature needs, and only when you use that feature:
- Notifications (optional): one daily word at the time you choose, and a reminder before a free trial ends. Notifications are generated on your phone. You can turn them off in Settings or in your phone’s settings.
- Microphone (optional): used only while you tap “Say it” to check your pronunciation. WordShine does not record, save or send the audio: your phone’s built-in speech-recognition service listens and returns the words it heard, and WordShine uses them only to compare with the word you were practising, then discards them. On many phones that service is provided by Google and may send the audio to Google’s servers to recognise it, unless you have the offline English speech pack installed. That is handled by the service under its own privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy), not by us. You can refuse the permission and still use everything else.
- Camera and photos (optional): when you choose “Photo of a page” or “From gallery” in Scan, WordShine opens your phone’s camera or gallery picker. The picture is read on your device and is not sent to us. WordShine keeps only the words or sentences you choose to save.
- Files (optional): when you export or import your data, you choose the file with your phone’s file picker. WordShine only reads the file you pick.
- Clipboard (only when you tap Paste): used to paste text or a challenge code into the app. WordShine does not read your clipboard in the background.
- Lock screen and wallpaper (optional): if you turn on the lock-screen word, the app sets your lock-screen image. Turning it off restores your phone’s own lock screen.
- Start at boot: so your daily word and lock-screen word keep their schedule after the phone restarts.
- Home-screen widgets and the Quick Settings tile (optional): show words from your own progress on your phone. Nothing leaves your phone.
- Text selection and Share (optional): if you select a word in another app and choose WordShine, or share an article to it, only that text is passed to WordShine, on your device.
- Sharing out (your choice): when you share a word card, a challenge or an export, it goes only to the app or person you pick.
- Pronunciation audio: played on your phone. Your phone’s text-to-speech engine may be used for words with no recording.
Internet access
The app asks for internet access only for Google Play purchases, for the usage and crash reports above if you agreed, and for opening web pages you ask to open (such as this policy). Everything you learn works offline. The one exception is “Say it”, which may need a connection because your phone’s speech-recognition service can work online.
Scanning text
When you photograph a page or paste text to find its hard words, the text is read on your device, using Google’s ML Kit text recognition. The recognition model is delivered by Google Play services. Your images and text are not sent to us, and WordShine keeps only the words or sentences you choose to save. ML Kit is provided by Google under its own terms, which describe the limited technical information it may send to Google.
Reviews
WordShine may ask Google Play to show its own rating card after you have used the app for a while. Google Play shows and handles the card. WordShine is not told your rating or whether you wrote a review.
Contacting us
“Contact us” opens your email app with a draft that includes your app version, a few simple counts (words discovered, learning and mastered, and days active) and any words you reported. You can read and edit it before sending, and nothing is sent unless you send it. If you email us, we receive your email address and what you write, and we use it only to answer you. We keep correspondence only as long as needed.
Who else handles information
We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for advertising. The only outside parties involved are Google services that WordShine uses: Google Play (purchases, the install itself, the review card), Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics (only if you agree), ML Kit text recognition (on your device), your phone’s speech-recognition and text-to-speech services, and Android Backup. They act under Google’s own terms and privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy). We may disclose information if the law requires it, but we hold very little: there is no account database and no learning data.
Where information is processed
We do not run servers for WordShine. Google processes the reports above, and Google Play handles purchases, in Google’s data centres in several countries, including the United States. Google uses safeguards for international transfers as described in its privacy and Firebase terms.
Security
Your progress is kept in the app’s private storage, which other apps cannot read. Reports travel to Google over encrypted connections. Purchase answers are checked against Google’s signature on your phone. No system is perfectly secure, so please keep your phone locked and updated and back up your export file if you rely on it.
Your choices and rights
Because we hold almost nothing about you, most choices are in the app:
- Reports: turn usage and crash reports on or off at any time in Settings → Your data → Usage and crash reports.
- Your data: export it, import it, or erase it (Settings → Your data; Reset all progress). Uninstalling removes it from your phone.
- Notifications, microphone, camera, lock screen: change them in the app or in your phone’s settings.
- Advertising ID: reset or delete it in your phone’s settings (Settings → Privacy → Ads).
- Purchases: cancel a subscription in the app (Settings → Premium) or in Google Play.
Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to ask us for access to, correction or deletion of the information we hold about you, to restrict or object to its use, to take a copy of it, and to withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect what happened before. Because reports are tied only to a random identifier and not to your name or account, we usually cannot tell which reports are yours; turning reports off, and letting them expire after the periods above, achieves the same result. You can still email unews.app@outlook.com with any request. We will reply within 30 days, and will say plainly what we can and cannot do. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, you can also complain to your local data-protection authority.
Information for particular places
- EEA, UK and Switzerland: the limited reports described above are collected only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. Google Play, as the seller of Premium, is responsible for your payment information.
- California and other US states: in the past 12 months we have not sold or shared personal information, and we do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than those described here. If you agree to reports, the categories involved are identifiers (the app-instance identifier and the advertising ID), internet and app activity, device information, approximate location, and purchase events, all collected for analytics and ad measurement. You can ask us about them at unews.app@outlook.com, and we will not treat you differently for doing so.
- Everywhere else: you have whatever rights your local law gives you. Contact us and we will honour them where we can.
Children
WordShine is made for teenagers and adults (aged 16 and over) and is not directed at children under 13. The developer does not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are under 16, please do not turn on usage and crash reports, and ask a parent or guardian before buying Premium. If you believe a child has sent us information, tell us at unews.app@outlook.com and we will delete it.
Links to other sites
WordShine opens web pages (such as the web version of this policy) and the Google Play listing in your browser or in Google Play. Those sites have their own privacy policies, which we do not control.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the new version will be published in the app (Settings → About) and at the address listed in Google Play, with a new effective date. If WordShine ever adds an online feature, such as an account, sync or a backend, this policy will say what it collects before the feature is available, and where the law requires it we will ask for your consent first.
Contact
If you have a question about this policy or your information, write to unews.app@outlook.com.