Privacy Policy
Wordaboo · Last updated 6 October 2026
Wordaboo is a language-learning app published by Needed Labs. This policy explains what the app collects, why, who else sees it, and how to get it deleted. It covers the Wordaboo Android and iOS apps and nothing else.
The short version. Your first lesson needs no account at all. To carry on after that you sign in with Google, Apple, or an email address, which is what lets your progress survive a new phone. The app shows ads and offers a paid subscription. It has no analytics or tracking SDK of its own, and your data is never sold.
This policy is also published in other languages. If a translation and this English version ever differ, the English version is the one that applies.
1. Who is responsible
Needed Labs is a trading name of Zarina Giyasova, Switzerland, who is the data controller for the Wordaboo app. Wordaboo is published under the name Needed Labs on Google Play and under Zarina Giyasova on the App Store — the same person and the same app in both places.
Contact: wordaboo@gmail.com.
2. What Wordaboo collects
| Data | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email address and account identifier | From signing in with Google, with Apple, or with an email address and password. The first lesson can be completed without an account; continuing after that requires one. | To identify your account so progress can be restored on another device, and to send you a small number of account emails: a welcome when you sign up, and confirmations if you ask to delete your account. There is no marketing email and no newsletter. |
| Learning progress — course, lessons completed, XP, streak, daily goal, and words you answered incorrectly | As you use the app. | To run the app, unlock lessons in order, and drill words you find hard. |
| Two optional survey answers — how you found Wordaboo, and why you are learning | Asked once, when you first set up a course. Both questions can be skipped, and skipping is remembered so you are not asked again. | To understand which courses to build next and where learners come from. Answers are only ever read as totals across all users. See section 5. |
| A shared card — a username you choose, your streak, total XP, XP earned this week, level, and the course you are learning | Only if you switch Friends on. It is off unless you turn it on, and turning it off again deletes the card. | So people you have shared a code with can see how you are getting on, and so you can take part in the weekly leagues. See section 6. |
| Microphone audio | Only while a speaking exercise is actively listening, after you tap the microphone. | To check your pronunciation. See section 4. |
| Advertising identifier and device information | While ads are shown (not for subscribers). | Collected by Google AdMob to serve and measure ads. See section 7. |
| Subscription status | If you subscribe to Wordaboo Premium. | To unlock Premium on every device where you sign in to your account. See section 8. |
| App version and first-lesson figures — which version of the app you last used, when you first started a lesson, and how many you started before finishing one | With your progress, while you are signed in. | To know when a fix has reached everybody, and to see where new learners get stuck. Only ever read as totals across all users. |
| A notification token — an identifier your phone's operating system issues to this app, and the language you read the app in | Only if you switch friend notifications on. It is off unless you turn it on, and turning it off deletes the token rather than hiding it. | So the server can tell your phone when somebody follows you, accepts your request, challenges you to a game, asks for a rematch or finds you a match, or a shared streak is about to lapse — and send it in your own language. It identifies a device, never a person, it is never shared, and it is deleted with your account. |
Wordaboo does not collect your contacts, photos, files, location, or phone number, and it contains no third-party analytics or crash-reporting SDK.
3. Where it is stored
Your progress is always stored on your device. If you are signed in, a copy is also stored in Google Cloud Firestore, in a document identified by your account identifier, on servers located in the European Union. Only your own signed-in account can read or write that record, and the Friends feature does not change this.
If — and only if — you switch Friends on, a separate and much smaller document is created holding the few things listed in the table above. That one can be read by other signed-in users, which is what makes a friends list work. Your main record is never involved, so nothing else becomes visible to anybody. See section 6.
Until you sign in, nothing about you leaves your device. The app only downloads lesson audio from wordaboo.app, the same way a browser loads a web page, and makes the ad requests described below.
4. Speaking exercises and the microphone
Speaking exercises are optional and always skippable. The microphone is only active while an exercise is listening, and the app never records in the background.
Wordaboo does not store your voice and does not send audio to its own servers. Transcription is performed by your device's built-in speech recognition service. On most Android phones that service is provided by Google and, unless your device is configured for on-device recognition, the audio is sent to Google for processing under Google's Privacy Policy. On iPhone and iPad the service is Apple's speech recognition, and the audio may be sent to Apple for processing under Apple's Privacy Policy. Wordaboo receives only the resulting text, compares it to the expected answer, and discards it.
You can decline or revoke the microphone permission in your device settings at any time. Everything except speaking exercises continues to work.
5. The two survey questions
The first time you set up a course, Wordaboo asks two questions: how you found the app, and why you are learning. Each has a short list of answers to choose from — there is no free text box, so you cannot accidentally tell us anything about yourself.
Both questions are optional. There is a "Skip this" button, skipping costs you nothing, and no feature of the app depends on answering. If you skip, that fact is recorded only so the questions are not asked again on your next launch.
Your answers are stored with your account and are read only as totals — for example "60% of learners chose French" or "most people are learning for travel". They are never used to build a profile of you, are never shown to other users, and are never sold or shared with anyone. Deleting your account deletes them along with everything else (see section 11).
Wordaboo does not use Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics, or any third-party analytics SDK. These two answers, your learning progress, and the app version and first-lesson figures listed in section 2 are the only usage information the app has.
6. Friends
Wordaboo can show you how people you know are getting on. It is switched off. Nothing about you is shared with anyone until you open the Friends screen and turn it on, and that screen lists exactly what will be shared before you do.
When it is on, a small card is published containing a username you choose, your friend code, your streak, your total XP, the XP you have earned this calendar week, the level you have reached, and the course you are learning, together with when it was last updated. You can switch the streak, the XP, the level and the course off one by one on the Friends screen. One more item is off unless you switch it on: which of the last 30 days you practised, which shared streaks need. That is the complete list, plus the league details below. It can be read by other signed-in Wordaboo users.
Weekly leagues. With Friends on, you are placed in a league of up to twenty learners for seven days. The card then also records which league you are in, your league tier, and your XP at the moment you joined, so that the XP you earn during the league can be counted. Everyone in the same league, not only people you have added, sees your username and that league XP on the league board. If you have switched XP sharing off, you do not appear on the board at all. When the league ends it is closed and those details are cleared; only the tier you finish on is kept.
Word games. With Friends on, you can play one-against-one word games against a friend or another learner. When a match ends, the server records your rating, how many games you have played, won, lost and drawn, and how many answers you got right. Your username and those numbers appear on the games leaderboard, which other signed-in users can see. A match itself can be read only by its two players: it holds both usernames and each player’s answers, and nothing either player types is ever shown to the other, because there is nothing to type. Turning Friends off deletes your leaderboard row, and deleting your account deletes it and your matches.
The weekly board. Each finished match also counts towards a board for the current week, which other signed-in users can see: your username, the points you earned that week (three for a win, one for a draw), your wins and the games you played. When the week ends on Monday, the top three are given a trophy, which is kept with your games numbers, and the week's board is deleted.
Recorded matches. When nobody else is searching, a learner can play a recording of another player’s finished match instead. So when your match ends, the server may keep a short recording of your side of it: your username, your rating, the game, your level, the language you answered in, and for each question only whether you were right and how long you took — never the questions or the answers themselves. A newer match replaces it, and it is deleted after 14 days at most. It is never offered to anybody you have blocked or who has blocked you, it is no longer offered once you turn Friends off, and it is deleted with your account.
Challenges and rematches. A friend can challenge you to a match. For ten minutes after a match ends, the person you just played can also ask you for a rematch, even if you are not friends. You see their username and the game, and you choose whether to play.
The username is one you pick, not the name on your Google or Apple account. Your real name is never shared with other users, even if it is the name attached to the account you signed in with. Usernames are unique, so claiming one reserves it, and changing yours releases the old one for somebody else.
It never includes your email address, your survey answers, which lessons you have done, which words you got wrong, or your daily goal. Those stay in your private record, which no other account can read.
People find you by your username or by a seven-character code, either of which you choose to give out — Wordaboo does not read your contacts, and cannot suggest people to you. Who you have added is stored privately on your own record, so nobody can see your friends list, not even your friends.
Turning Friends off deletes the shared card rather than hiding it. Other users stop being able to see you immediately.
7. Advertising
Wordaboo shows ads supplied by Google AdMob. To serve, cap and measure them, AdMob may process your device's advertising identifier, IP address, device and app information, and your interactions with ads. Wordaboo does not receive or store that data.
- Google's handling of it is described in the Google Business Data Responsibility and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
- You can reset or delete your advertising identifier in Settings → Google → Ads on Android. On iPhone the app asks before any tracking, and you can change that answer at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
- Where the law requires it, you will be asked for consent before personalised ads are shown, and you can change that choice later.
- Wordaboo Premium removes all ads, and no ad requests are made for subscribers.
8. Purchases
Wordaboo Premium is billed by Google Play on Android and by the App Store on iPhone. Payment is handled entirely by Google or Apple — Wordaboo never sees or stores your card details, billing address, or any payment information. If you subscribe while signed in, we keep a record with your account of which store the subscription came from, which plan it is, when the current period ends, and the store's reference for the purchase. We check that reference with Google or Apple, so that Premium works on every device where you sign in, on Android and iPhone alike. The record is deleted with your account.
Manage or cancel your subscription on iPhone in Settings → your name → Subscriptions, or on Android at play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions. Refunds are handled by Apple or Google under their own terms.
9. Who else sees your data
Your data is never sold, and it is never shared for anyone else's advertising. It is processed only by the service providers that make the app work:
- Google Firebase (authentication, Firestore, Cloud Functions and Hosting) — account identity, progress sync, leagues, and delivering lesson audio.
- Expo — delivering friend and game notifications to your phone, if you switch them on. It receives the notification token and the text of the notification.
- Google AdMob — advertising, as described above.
- Brevo — delivering the account emails described in section 2. It receives your name, your email address and the email itself, and nothing else.
- Google Play Billing — subscription payments on Android.
- Apple — subscription payments through the App Store on iPhone, and Sign in with Apple if you choose it.
- Your device's speech recognition provider — pronunciation checking, as described above.
Data may also be disclosed where required by law.
10. How long it is kept
Progress stored on your device is deleted when you uninstall the app or clear its storage. Progress stored in your account is kept until you ask for it to be deleted, or until the account has been inactive for three years, whichever comes first.
11. Your rights, and how to delete your account
You can ask to see, correct, export or delete the data held about you, object to processing, or withdraw consent. Depending on where you live these rights come from the Swiss FADP, the EU/UK GDPR, or local law.
To delete your account and all associated data, open the app and go to You → Account → Delete my account. You can also email wordaboo@gmail.com from the address you signed in with; the account deletion page has both routes in full.
When you delete in the app, your shared Friends card is removed immediately and everything else — your account record, learning progress and sign-in identity — is held for 14 days and then deleted permanently. Signing in again during those 14 days cancels the deletion and restores everything. We email you when the deletion is scheduled and again when it is complete. Requests made by email are completed within 30 days. Nothing is retained afterwards. You can also remove the local copy at any time by uninstalling the app.
Deleting your account does not cancel a Premium subscription — cancel that separately, in Settings → your name → Subscriptions on iPhone or in Google Play on Android.
If you believe your data has been handled improperly you may complain to your local supervisory authority — in Switzerland, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).
12. Children
Wordaboo is not directed to children under 13 and does not knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child has provided personal data, contact us and it will be deleted.
13. Security
All communication with our service providers uses encrypted HTTPS connections. Account data in Firestore is readable and writable only by the signed-in account it belongs to. No system is perfectly secure, and no absolute guarantee is offered.
14. This website
The pages on wordaboo.app are static files served by Firebase Hosting, which keeps standard server logs including IP addresses. There is no analytics, no tracking pixel and no cookie set by us on any page here.
The home page loads its two typefaces from Google Fonts, which means your browser makes a request to
fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. Google receives your IP address and
browser details as part of that request. It is the only third party any page on this site contacts, and it
sets no cookie. The legal pages, including this one, load no external resources at all.
15. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes materially, the date at the top of the page is updated and the change is announced in the app before it takes effect. The current version always lives at this address.