Legal
Summary
1. Summary
chinalli is an offline app for learning Chinese.
- There is no user account, no registration and no sign-in.
- The app contains no advertising, no tracking, no analytics tools and no advertising ID.
- All learning data stays on your device. The provider runs no server for chinalli and receives no learning data from you. For a purchase through Google Play the provider does receive billing information; section 4a says exactly what.
- Data can leave your device in only three cases: the text-to-speech output handled by your operating system (section 5), sharing an export or image file (section 6), both triggered by you, and your operating system's device backup (e.g. the Android backup in your Google account): it may include the app's local data and restore it when you reinstall the app. This backup is a system service you manage in your device settings; the provider has no access to it.
- Reminders stay local. They are off by default, are scheduled on your device only and never leave it (section 8).
Controller
2. Data controller
The controller under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:
Alexandra Evers-Königschultetrading as Alexeko Studio
Neuer Graben 67
44139 Dortmund
Germany
Data
3. What the app stores on your device
chinalli creates a local database (chinalli.db) in the app's private storage. It contains learning data only:
| Data | Content |
|---|---|
| Learning state | Per word: number of consecutive correct answers, marker for the review pool, next due date, time of last review |
| Activity | Calendar days on which you studied (basis for the streak) |
| Streak protection | Calendar days that were automatically bridged by a streak protection, plus when it was used |
| Favourites | Words you marked |
| Answer log | Per answer: timestamp, correct/incorrect, time taken in milliseconds, whether the solution was revealed |
| Tone practice log | Per answer in the tone practice: timestamp, the tone you heard, the tone you picked (empty when the answer was not a tone choice), correct/incorrect, the word that was asked |
| Confusion log | Per answer in the confusion training: timestamp, which word pair was practised, which character was asked and which one you picked, correct/incorrect, type of drill |
| Building-block learning state | Per practised character building block: number of consecutive correct answers, whether it is flagged for review, the next due date, when it was last reviewed. Kept separate from the vocabulary learning state |
| Building-block practice log | Per answer in the building-block practice: timestamp, which block was practised, type of question, which word was shown, which option you picked, correct/incorrect |
| Achievements | Which badges you unlocked and when. Experience points (XP) and levels are not stored; they are recalculated from your learning state, activity days and answer log every time they are shown |
| Vocabulary | The bundled word list including example sentences and mnemonics |
| Error reports | On a program error: error type, error message, technical call path (stack trace), timestamp, app version, operating system and its version. At most 20 entries; older ones are deleted automatically |
In addition, the app permanently stores your app settings in local app storage. These include, among others:
- your language selection (interface language, vocabulary language, learning direction),
- the appearance (light or dark) and whether vibration on answering is switched on,
- whether reminders are on or off and the time of day you picked for them (see section 8),
- your answers from the intro (learning goal, level, preferred time of day), the daily goal derived from them, and the difficulty level,
- whether additional content is unlocked, and if so: from which source (purchase), which product was bought and when Google Play last confirmed it. This note stays on your device and is not transmitted to the provider. chinalli never receives payment data. The purchase itself runs entirely inside Google Play (see section 4a),
- the course you picked. It stays on your device and is not transmitted. A course entry saved by an earlier app version may additionally be present; the app no longer uses it.
The remaining settings (speech rate, pitch, card side) apply to the current session only.
Not collected: name, email address, phone number, postal address, date of birth, location, contacts, photos, microphone or camera data, device identifiers, advertising ID, IP address.
No server
4. No transmission to the provider
chinalli has no backend. The app contains no code that sends learning, usage or error data to the provider or to third parties. In particular, your learning behaviour is not analysed anywhere outside your device.
For technical reasons Android apps include the internet permission. chinalli does not use it to transmit your data. The only connection the app opens on its own is the one to the Google Play billing service on your device (section 4a); it carries no learning data.
Purchases
4a. Purchases through Google Play (“chinalli Plus”)
chinalli offers the extra feature “chinalli Plus” as a subscription or as a one-time purchase. The purchase runs entirely through Google Play; chinalli is involved only insofar as the app asks which products exist and whether you own one of them.
- chinalli sees no payment data. Card details, bank details, billing address and your Google account are processed exclusively by Google. The app receives neither those details nor your Google account identifier, and therefore stores neither.
- What the app asks for: the prices of the three products in your currency, and the answer to “does this device account own chinalli Plus?”. That query goes to the Google Play services on your device, not to the provider. It runs when the app starts and when you open the Plus page.
- What the app stores: that Plus is unlocked, which product identifier was bought and when the query last confirmed it (section 3). All of that stays on your device.
- What the provider learns about a purchase. Not your payment details; those stay with Google. Through the Google Play Console, however, the provider does have access to transaction-level information: order number, product purchased, purchase status, amount and the buyer's country. If you contact support with an order number or the address of your Google account, the provider can look up the matching order there. This information is used only for billing, tax obligations, refunds and support.
- Google is the controller for the payment process. Google's privacy policy applies (policies.google.com/privacy).
- Without a purchase none of this happens: if you use chinalli for free and never open the Plus page, only the short ownership query at start-up runs. It transmits no learning data and leaves no trace with the provider.
TTS
5. Text-to-speech
When you have a word or example sentence read aloud, chinalli passes that text to your operating system's speech engine (for example “Google Speech Services” on Android or the system voice on iOS).
- Only text from the bundled vocabulary is passed on. chinalli has no free-text input of your own.
- What the speech engine does with it is outside our control. Some engines process the text on the device, others send it to their provider's servers for synthesis. The privacy policy of that provider (e.g. Google or Apple) or of your device manufacturer applies.
- chinalli picks the Chinese voice automatically from the voices present on your device and prefers a voice that works offline. It never picks a voice that requires an internet connection on its own.
- If you want to avoid this: do not use the speech output in chinalli, or install and select an offline voice in your system settings.
Export
6. Export, sharing and import
chinalli offers three sharing actions, all executed only when you explicitly ask for them:
- Backup: creates a JSON file with your learning state (vocabulary, learning status, activity days, streak protection, favourites, answer log, tone practice log, confusion log, building-block learning state, building-block practice log, achievements) and opens your system's share dialog.
- Error report: creates a JSON file with the most recently stored error reports (see section 3) and opens the share dialog. If you choose to email that file to the provider, they process the message including your sender address solely to deal with the error (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) and delete it once it is no longer needed for that. The app never sends anything by itself.
- Share result: you can share a result in six places: at the end of a study session, in the statistics screen, when you reach your daily goal, after a round of mix-up practice, after a round of radical practice, and as an invitation from the home screen. In all six the app creates an image file on your device; if that fails, plain text is shared instead. The image shows nothing but details you saw in the preview beforehand: depending on the card, one learning or practice figure (such as cards practised, your streak or the result of a round), a short heading for it, and a reference to chinalli. The invitation card may additionally carry a QR code to the app's Google Play entry. The plain text contains the store link instead. No vocabulary content, no personal data, no upload by the app.
You alone choose the destination (email, messenger, cloud storage, local file). From the moment you pick a destination, that service's privacy policy applies. The file is also written to the app's temporary cache; the operating system clears that area on its own.
When importing a backup, the app opens the system file picker. Only the file you select is read.
App store
7. Link to the app store
The share function can open chinalli's entry in the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. You then leave the app and the store operator's privacy terms apply.
After several days of regular use, the system rating dialog may also appear (Google Play In-App Review or its iOS equivalent). That dialog belongs to the operating system, not to chinalli. The app receives no feedback from it, neither whether you rated nor how many stars you gave. Nothing is passed on beyond the request to show the dialog.
Reminders
8. Reminders (notifications)
chinalli can remind you to practise once a day. The feature is off by default and only becomes active once you switch it on in the settings.
- Reminders are scheduled on your device. There is no server, no push service and no push identifier; the app never requests a push token.
- A reminder says nothing more than how many cards are due on your device or how long your current streak is. No additional data is collected and none is transmitted for this.
- The chosen time and the on/off state are stored locally (section 3).
- You can switch reminders off again at any time in chinalli's settings, or turn off notifications for the app in your device's system settings. Reminders that were already scheduled are removed in the process.
Permissions
9. Permissions
chinalli has no access to microphone, camera, location, contacts, phone state or your media library. Backup export and import use the system dialog, which grants the app access only to the file you select.
A single runtime permission may be requested: when you switch on reminders (section 8), chinalli asks once for permission to show notifications on Android 13 and above. If you decline, only that feature stays disabled; everything else in the app keeps working unchanged.
The Android build additionally carries the com.android.vending.BILLING permission. It is what makes a purchase through Google Play possible at all (section 4a). It is not presented to you for confirmation, it gives the app no access to your payment data, and without a purchase you trigger yourself it is used only for the ownership query.
Legal basis
10. Legal basis
Storing information on your device and accessing it is strictly necessary to provide the service you explicitly requested (Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG, the German implementation of the ePrivacy Directive). Without the locally stored learning state the app could not deliver its core function, repetition at the right interval.
To the extent these local data are considered personal data, processing is based on Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of a contract). Since the data never leave your device for the provider, the provider carries out no processing within the meaning of Art. 4(2) GDPR.
Retention
11. Retention and deletion
- Error reports: at most 20 entries; older ones are removed automatically. You can delete all error reports yourself at any time in the “Statistics” area.
- Settings and language choice: can be reset in the settings. “Reset data” also removes your answers from the intro and the daily goal derived from them.
- Reminders: “Reset data” removes the stored setting together with every reminder that was already scheduled.
- All data: because everything is local, you delete all data by clearing the app storage (Android: Settings → Apps → chinalli → Storage → Clear data) or by uninstalling the app. No copies remain afterwards, not with the provider either, because none ever arrived there.
Your rights
12. Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the rights of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21). You may also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.
Practical note: the provider stores no data about you and therefore cannot identify you (Art. 11 GDPR). Access or erasure by the provider is thus neither possible nor necessary; all data remain under your control on your device (see section 11).
Children
13. Children
chinalli is not directed at children and collects no personal data from anyone, regardless of age.
Google Play
14. Distribution via Google Play
The app is distributed through Google Play. In doing so, Google processes data as its own controller (for example installation and account data as well as crash and performance data collected automatically by Android). chinalli's provider has no influence over this; Google's privacy policy applies.
Changes
15. Changes to this policy
If the app's functionality changes, this policy will be updated. The version published at the address stored in the Play Console is the applicable one; the date is shown above under “Last updated”.
Contact
16. Contact
Questions about data protection: datenschutz@alexekostudio.com