Privacy Policy

The short version

Acceptional is a speech-practice app for young children, used with a parent or guardian. We try to collect as little as we can.

• A parent or guardian creates the account. Children do not have accounts.
• When a game listens, your child's voice is sent live to a speech-recognition service so the game can hear the word. The app does not record or save audio.
• On the home screen, if "listen for the companion's name" is on, your browser's own speech recognition listens for that name. The app only learns that the name was heard. See "Your child's voice and the microphone."
• Finished story pictures and video stay on your device, not on our servers.
• No ads. We do not sell personal information.
• A parent can delete stories and remove guests in the app, and can email us for anything else.

Who we are

Acceptional (also called Acceptional Learning) is run by [Company legal name] ("we" and "us"). This policy covers the Acceptional website and app, including the games and Story Time.

You can reach us at [privacy contact email]. Our mailing address is [Mailing address].

What we collect

Some of what follows only applies if you make an account. The games can be played without one.

• Account details: your name or label, your household name, and your email address. We store your password only as a salted hash, so we cannot read it.
• Guest details: the email address and label (like "Grandpa") the main account enters when it invites a guest, and the weekly limit it sets for that guest.
• Companion settings: the name each account gives the companion (it starts as "Astra"), which of four Deepgram voices it speaks with, and whether the home screen listens for its name. Please do not put private details in a companion name.
• Sign-in sessions: a random sign-in code and when it expires, so you stay signed in on your device.
• Household settings and activity: the weekly story limits, when the account was created, when invites were made, accepted, or cancelled, and when a guest was removed.
• Story records: for each story, its title, the story idea (the subject), who made it, whether it used AI pictures or practice pictures, and when it was started and finished. We also keep short in-app notices, such as "Dana made a story," for the main account.
• Story ideas: a story idea is whatever your family says or types, within our filters. Please do not put private details in one.
• Voice: processed live while a game is listening. We do not save it. See "Your child's voice and the microphone."
• Wake-by-name: if it is on, your browser listens for the companion's name on the home screen. We receive no audio from this, only the moment the name was heard.
• Play-together rooms: a four-letter invite code and a fixed label of "host" or "guest." We do not collect your child's name for this.
• Ordinary technical information: like any website, the services that deliver our pages see your IP address, browser type, and which pages and features you use.

What we do not collect

We do not ask a child for a name, age, birthday, photo, home address, phone number, or location. The app has no chat, no public profiles, and no way for a child to post or message other people.

We do not put advertising or third-party analytics tools in the app. We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it to build advertising profiles.

The app does not save audio recordings. It also does not use the camera.

How we use information

We use what we collect only to run Acceptional. We do not use children's information for advertising or profiling.

• To create accounts, sign you in, and keep you signed in.
• To let a main account invite guests and set weekly story limits, and to enforce those limits.
• To show the household story library and tell the main account when a guest finishes a story.
• To make the games hear and speak, and to make stories.
• To keep the service safe, prevent misuse, and fix problems.
• To answer your questions and requests, and to follow the law.

Who can see what in a household

The main account can see its guests' labels, email addresses, and weekly usage, and the stories guests make. Everyone in a household can see the household's story list, including each story's title, idea, maker, and date.

Guests do not get our AI or speech keys. They use Acceptional through the main account's household, within the weekly limits the main account sets.

Your child's voice and the microphone

Your browser asks for permission before the microphone is used. You decide whether to allow it, and you can turn it off at any time in your browser settings. The microphone is only used while a game is listening, or on the home screen while "listen for the companion's name" is on.

When a game is listening, your browser sends the audio live, over an encrypted connection, to Deepgram, which turns it into text. We give your browser a pass that works for about 30 seconds, so our Deepgram key never reaches your device. We also send the word being practiced as a hint to help Deepgram recognize it. We ask Deepgram not to use the audio to improve its models.

The app does not record or save the audio, and we do not keep a copy of it. The text of what was heard is used on the page to check the word. It leaves the page only when it becomes a Word Stack theme or a story idea, or when your child talks to the companion on the home screen so it can choose how to react (happy, loving, sleepy, or calm), which are sent to OpenRouter, or when the companion says a word back to your child, which is sent to Deepgram's voice. Both are described below.

Deepgram has its own rules about how it handles data. See its privacy policy for details.

Listening for the companion's name. The companion is called Astra unless you rename it. On the home screen, if wake-by-name is on, your browser's own built-in speech recognition listens for that name. It does not use Deepgram for this. In some browsers, such as Chrome, that audio is processed by the browser's maker (for example Google). In others, such as Safari, it is processed by Apple. The app itself does not receive or keep that audio. It only learns that the name was heard, and then starts the Deepgram listening described above. Deepgram listening starts only after a tap or after the name is heard. A parent can turn wake-by-name off for an account in Account, and the browser's microphone permission can also be turned off in the browser settings.

Companies that help us run Acceptional

We use these service providers. Each one does a job for us, and we send each one only what that job needs. They have their own privacy policies and we do not control them. How long they keep data is set by their own terms and settings.

These companies may process information in the United States or other countries where they operate.

• Cloudflare hosts our website and server code, and stores our household database. It sees your IP address and the requests your device makes.
• Deepgram turns your child's live voice into text. It also makes the companion's spoken voice: we send it a short line of text from the app, which sometimes includes a practice word, a theme, or a story idea, and it sends back audio. The account picks the companion's voice from four Deepgram voices (Iris, Luna, Orion, or Apollo), so we also send it the name of that voice.
• OpenRouter is a gateway that passes our requests to AI models, such as models from Google, OpenAI, and ByteDance. To pick practice words, it receives a category, or the sentence a child said when choosing a Word Stack theme. When your child talks to the companion on the home screen, it receives that sentence and returns one word for how the companion should react. To plan a story, it receives the story idea. To draw a picture, it receives the scene and character descriptions. To make a video clip, it receives the scene description and the still picture. We do not send names, email addresses, or other account details.
• Google Fonts supplies the typefaces on our pages. When a page opens, your browser asks Google for the fonts, so Google sees your IP address and browser information.
• Our game server host (currently Railway) runs the Word Stack play-together rooms. It sees the connection information for the people in a room, the invite code, and the fixed "host" or "guest" label. No audio, speech, or account information goes to it.

Cookies and local storage

We set one cookie, named al_session. It keeps you signed in. It is needed for the household features to work. It cannot be read by scripts on the page, it is only sent over secure connections on the live site, and it is not sent along with requests from other sites. It lasts up to 30 days, and signing out removes it. We do not set advertising or analytics cookies.

Acceptional also saves some things in your browser. These stay on your device and are not sent to us.

• Saved stories: when a story finishes, your browser keeps its story file, pictures, and video in its IndexedDB storage so you can replay it. Deleting the story in the library removes it from the device you are using. Clearing your browser's site data removes it too. A copy you downloaded stays in your files.
• Voice lines: your browser may keep the companion's spoken lines in its normal cache for up to a day, so it does not have to fetch them again.
• The companies that deliver our pages and fonts may keep their own technical logs. We do not use them for advertising.
• You can clear cookies and site data in your browser settings at any time. If you clear the cookie, you will be signed out.

Children's privacy (COPPA)

Acceptional is made for children about 4 to 8, so we take children's privacy seriously. Children do not create accounts. A parent or guardian creates the household account and, by doing so, agrees to this policy for their child.

From a child, Acceptional handles the child's voice while a game is listening, and story ideas the child says. Voice is processed live by Deepgram and is not saved by the app. A story idea that becomes a story is saved in the story record. We do not ask a child for a name, email, photo, or location, and a child cannot post or message anyone through the app.

We do not show ads, we do not sell children's information, and we do not use it to build profiles. We share it only with the service providers listed above, to run the app. A child does not have to give more information than the game needs to play.

Parents can review and delete what we keep. To see, correct, or delete anything the app does not let you manage yourself, or to close the account, email [privacy contact email]. We may ask you to confirm you are the account holder. If you think your child gave us information without your say-so, tell us and we will work to delete it.

In the app, a parent can:

• See the list of stories, with each title, idea, maker, and date.
• Delete any story. This removes the record from our database and the copy on the device you are using. A copy you downloaded stays in your files.
• Remove a guest, which signs them out and ends their access.
• Change the weekly story limits.
• Rename the companion, pick its Deepgram voice, and turn off listening for its name, in Account.
• Turn off the microphone in the browser settings.

How long we keep information

We keep information only as long as it is needed to run Acceptional, with the exceptions below.

• Audio: the app does not store it.
• Sign-in sessions: last up to 30 days. They end when you sign out, and a guest's sessions end when the main account removes them.
• Invites: the link works for 14 days. We keep a record of each invite, including the email address, with the household record.
• Unfinished stories: an unfinished story record is removed after about six hours, or when you start another story.
• Finished stories and their notices: kept until a household member with permission deletes the story. Deleting a story also deletes its notices. Only the main account, or the guest who made a story, can delete it.
• Account and household details: kept until the account is deleted. When a guest is removed, their access ends right away, but their account record stays on file, marked as removed, until the household is deleted.
• Copies on your device: kept until you delete the story or clear your browser data.
• When you ask us to delete an account, we will delete its information, except what we must keep by law.

Security

We use reasonable steps to protect information. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot promise absolute security.

• Our pages, and the live voice connection, use encrypted connections.
• Passwords are stored as salted hashes, not as plain text.
• The sign-in cookie cannot be read by page scripts.
• Our AI and speech keys stay on our servers. Your device only gets a short-lived pass for live listening.
• Only the main account can invite or remove guests.
• Play-together rooms are private and can only be joined with the invite code.
• If you think your account has been misused, email [privacy contact email].

Your choices

You can use the games without an account. You can leave the microphone off, and you can delete stories and remove guests at any time.

Depending on where you live, you may have other rights, such as asking to see, correct, or delete your information. Email [privacy contact email] and we will respond as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When we do, we change the date at the top. If a change is important, we will tell the main account in the app or by email before it takes effect.

If we ever want to collect more from children or use it in a new way, we will tell the account holder first.

Contact

Questions or requests about privacy? Email [privacy contact email].

[Company legal name], [Mailing address]