Privacy policy
Wayword collects what it needs to run your course and nothing for advertising. We don’t sell or share your data, and you can delete your account at any time.
Last updated November 1, 2026
This policy covers the Wayword app for iPhone and Android, the website waywordapp.com and the email we send. Wayword is made by Real Blue Software LLC (“we”), New Berlin, Wisconsin, USA. Questions go to dgauger@realbluesoftware.com.
The short version
| What | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Your account: email, name (optional), sign-in method | To sign you in and sync your course | Until you delete your account |
| Your progress and settings | To run lessons and review, on every device | Until you delete your account |
| Speaking recordings | To check your pronunciation | Not stored: discarded after scoring |
| Usage events (you can turn these off) | To see which lessons work and fix the ones that don’t | 400 days |
| Crash reports (you can turn these off) | To fix crashes | 90 days (Firebase Crashlytics) |
| Notification token and choices | To send the reminders you asked for | Until you sign out or delete your account |
| Waitlist email | To tell you when Wayword launches | Until you leave the list |
Your account
You create an account with an email and password, or with Google or Apple. We keep your email address, the name you give (optional), how you sign in, your learning language, your daily goal, your reminder time and time zone, and your settings. Sign-in is handled by Google Firebase Authentication. If you use “Hide My Email” with Apple, we only see the relay address Apple gives us.
Your learning progress
The lessons you’ve finished, your review cards and their schedule, your answers’ results, the phrases you saved, and per-sound speaking results are stored on your device and synced to our server, so your course follows you to another phone. Course content (lessons and audio) is downloaded from our server; downloading it reveals nothing about you beyond your IP address in the server log.
Microphone and speech
Wayword asks for the microphone only when you first use a speaking drill, and you can always skip speaking. When you speak, the short recording (up to 15 seconds) is sent to our server and on to Google Cloud Speech-to-Text to be transcribed. We compare the transcript with the phrase, give you feedback, and then discard the recording. We don’t store recordings, and Google processes them as our service provider under its Cloud data processing terms, not to train its models. What we keep is the result: which words came through and per-sound counts.
Usage events and crash reports
To learn which lessons work, the app records events such as “lesson started”, “lesson finished”, “drill answered” (right or wrong, never what you typed or said) and “notification opened”, with your app version and platform. They go to our own server and to Google Analytics for Firebase. Crashes are reported to Firebase Crashlytics with technical details about the crash and your device model. Neither uses the advertising ID, and nothing is used for ads.
Turn either off in the app under Settings, Privacy (“Share usage data” and “Send crash reports”). With usage data off, the app sends no events and our server drops any that arrive. Basic operational counts with no content (that you used the app on a day, how many speaking checks ran) still accrue, because we need them to run and pay for the service.
Notifications
If you allow notifications, your device’s push token is sent to our server so we can send the reminders you chose through Firebase Cloud Messaging. You choose which kinds you get in Settings, Notifications; we send at most one a day and none between 9 pm and 8 am, except the reminder at the time you picked. Signing out removes the token.
We send email through Resend: a welcome and a getting-started note when you join (you can turn these off), a weekly progress email only if you turn it on, and one-off messages you trigger (confirming a waitlist sign-up, a deletion link, a deletion confirmation). Every email except those one-off messages has a link to change your choices and a one-click unsubscribe, which also works from your mail app.
The waitlist
If you join the early-access waitlist, we keep your email address, the phone you picked, the language you’d like next (if you said), where on the site you signed up, and the exact consent sentence you agreed to, with the time. We send one email to confirm it’s you. If you don’t confirm, we delete the address 60 days later. After you confirm, we email you when Wayword is in the app stores and occasionally about early access. Every email has a link to leave the list, which deletes your entry.
This website
waywordapp.com sets no cookies and runs no analytics or advertising scripts. Like any web server, ours logs each request (IP address, page, browser, time) to keep the site running and secure; those logs are kept for 30 days. The forms on this site (the waitlist, account deletion, email preferences) send what you type to our server only.
Who processes your data
- Google Cloud and Firebase (USA): hosting, database, sign-in, speech recognition, notifications, analytics, crash reports.
- Resend (USA): sending email.
- Apple and Google: if you sign in with them, and as the app stores.
We don’t sell your personal information or share it for cross-context advertising, and we don’t use it to build ad profiles.
How long we keep it
- Account, progress, settings, notification choices: until you delete your account.
- Usage events: 400 days, then deleted automatically.
- The record of messages we sent you: until you delete your account.
- Database backups: 7 days, so deleted data is gone from backups within a week.
- Website deletion requests: 90 days after they’re completed.
- Server logs: 30 days.
Deleting your account and data
In the app: Settings, Account, Delete account. This deletes your account, your progress, your settings, your notification tokens and your usage events from our servers right away, and removes your sign-in. Without the app, use the account deletion page, or email dgauger@realbluesoftware.com from the address on your account. We complete web requests within 30 days, and we’ll confirm by email.
Your choices and rights
You can see and change your profile and settings in the app, turn off usage data and crash reports, turn off any notification or email, and delete your account. You can also ask us for a copy of your data or to correct it by emailing dgauger@realbluesoftware.com; we answer within 30 days. If you’re in the EU, UK or a US state with a privacy law, you have these rights under that law, and you may complain to your data protection authority. We process your data to provide the service you asked for (contract), with your consent (waitlist, marketing email, notifications), and for our legitimate interest in keeping the service working and secure (logs, crash reports).
Children
Wayword is not directed to children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has an account, email us and we’ll delete it.
Security
Data travels over HTTPS and is encrypted at rest by Google Cloud. Access to production data is limited to the developer, and every administrative change is logged.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll say so in the app and update the date at the top. Earlier versions are available on request.
Contact
Real Blue Software LLC, New Berlin, Wisconsin, USA · dgauger@realbluesoftware.com