1. Who we are
Lingify is a language exchange app. This policy explains what personal data we collect when you use the Lingify app and the lingify.app website, why we collect it, and the choices you have.
Lingify is operated by Ionify Digital, a business based in the United Kingdom ("Lingify", "we", "us"). We are the controller of your personal data for the purposes of the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and similar laws.
You can reach us about anything in this policy at support@lingify.app.
2. The short version
- We collect what we need to run a language exchange: your account, your profile, your messages and how you use the app.
- Other members see your profile. Your messages are only visible to the people in that chat.
- AI features send the relevant text to OpenAI to produce an answer. Those requests are sent with storage turned off and are not used to train models.
- Free accounts see ads. Personalised ads are only shown if you agree.
- We don't sell your personal data.
- You can delete your account and data at any time in the app, under Settings › Delete account.
3. What we collect
Information you give us
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Account | Email address, name, and the identifier Apple or Google gives us when you sign in with them. If you use Sign in with Apple and hide your email, we receive a private relay address instead. |
| Profile | Photos, birth year, country and city, the languages you speak and are learning with your level for each, bio, interests, occupation, profile answers, an optional voice intro, and your practice preferences. |
| Content | Messages, voice messages, photos you send, corrections you give and receive, phrases you save, role-play conversations and their results, and reports you send us. |
| Support | What you tell us when you email us, and our replies. |
Information collected when you use Lingify
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Usage | Waves, matches, profile visits, streaks and XP, which features you use and how often (for example to count daily free limits), and when you were last active. |
| Device | Push notification token, app language, time zone, device type and operating system version, and technical logs such as IP address and error reports kept by our hosting provider. |
| Purchases | Which plan you have, when it renews or expires, and the purchase receipt from the Apple App Store or Google Play. We never see your card details. Apple and Google handle payment. |
| Advertising | For free accounts, our ads partner Google AdMob collects device identifiers and ad interaction data. On iOS, the advertising identifier is only used if you allow tracking. See Ads and tracking. |
We don't collect your precise location. Your country and city are what you enter on your profile.
4. How we use it
- Run the service: create your account, sign you in, show your profile, deliver messages, send notifications you asked for, and keep your streaks and phrasebook.
- Help you find partners: suggest members based on languages, levels, country and interests, and show "Top picks" in Discover.
- Provide AI features: translations, grammar checks, rephrasing, reply ideas, explanations and role-plays. See AI features.
- Handle subscriptions: check receipts with Apple or Google, unlock Plus or Pro, and apply free plan limits.
- Keep people safe: check messages for clearly harmful content before they are delivered, review reports, enforce our community guidelines, and prevent fraud and abuse.
- Show ads to free accounts.
- Improve Lingify: fix bugs, understand which features are used, and plan new ones, using aggregated or minimal data where we can.
- Talk to you: answer support requests and send important service messages, such as password reset codes or changes to these terms.
- Meet legal obligations such as tax records and responding to lawful requests.
5. Legal bases (EEA and UK)
Under the GDPR we rely on the following legal bases:
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Running your account, profile, chats, AI features you ask for, and subscriptions | Performance of our contract with you (the Terms of service) |
| Safety, moderation, fraud prevention and security | Our legitimate interest in keeping Lingify safe for everyone |
| Product analytics and improvement | Our legitimate interest in making Lingify better |
| Personalised ads and the iOS advertising identifier | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Non-personalised ads for free accounts | Our legitimate interest in funding a free plan |
| Push notifications | Your consent, given in the system permission prompt |
| Tax, accounting and lawful requests | Legal obligation |
Information you choose to add to your profile, such as interests or a bio, may reveal things about you. Please don't share sensitive information there that you don't want other members to see.
6. AI features
When you use the AI helper (translate, check, make it natural, reply ideas, explain, ask anything), translate a message, or play a role-play, we send the text needed for that request to OpenAI, together with a few details that make the answer useful, such as the languages involved and your level. For reply ideas and explanations this can include recent messages from the conversation, including your partner's. Voice messages may be sent for transcription when a feature needs the text.
We also use OpenAI's moderation service to check message text for clearly harmful content (for example threats or sexual content involving minors) before it is delivered.
We send these requests through the OpenAI API with storage turned off (store: false). OpenAI does not use API data to train its models. OpenAI may keep request data for a limited time (up to 30 days) to detect abuse, unless the law requires longer. Requests pass through Cloudflare's AI Gateway, which we use for reliability and cost control.
AI answers are generated automatically and can be wrong. We don't use AI to make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
7. Ads and tracking
Free accounts see ads from Google AdMob: a sponsored card in Discover, an ad after some practice sessions, and optional rewarded ads that give you extra AI uses. Plus and Pro members don't see ads.
- In the EEA, UK and some US states, we ask for your consent with Google's consent form before personalised ads are shown.
- On iOS, we ask permission through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt before the advertising identifier can be used. If you say no, ads are not personalised.
- You can change your choice any time in the app, under Settings › Ad privacy choices, and in your iPhone settings under Privacy & Security › Tracking.
Google's use of data is described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
8. What other members see
Lingify is social, so parts of your profile are visible to other signed-in members: your name, photos, age (worked out from your birth year), country and city, languages and levels, bio, interests, profile answers, voice intro, local time, when you were last active, and how often you reply. Your email address is never shown.
Messages, voice messages, photos and corrections in a chat are visible to the people in that chat. If you visit a profile, the owner may see your visit (Pro members see a full list). Pro members can turn on incognito browsing so their visits are not shown.
9. Who we share it with
We don't sell your personal data or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, except through the AdMob ads described above when you have consented. We share data only with service providers who process it for us under contract, and when the law requires it.
| Provider | What they do for us |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Hosting, database, file storage for photos and voice messages, password reset emails, AI Gateway and network security. |
| OpenAI, L.L.C. | AI features and message moderation, as described in AI features. |
| Apple Inc. | Sign in with Apple, App Store purchases and receipts, and push notifications on iPhone. |
| Google LLC | Sign in with Google, Google Play purchases (when available on Android), and ads through Google AdMob. |
| Expo (650 Industries, Inc.) | Delivery of some push notifications. |
We may also share information if we believe in good faith that it is needed to comply with the law, respond to valid legal requests, protect someone's safety, or enforce our terms, and with a buyer or successor if Lingify is involved in a merger or sale, in which case this policy will continue to apply.
10. How long we keep it
- Your account and profile: for as long as your account exists.
- Messages and media: until you or your chat partner deletes the conversation, or either of you deletes your account.
- Role-plays and phrasebook: until you delete them or your account.
- Reports: until the report has been handled and the accounts involved are deleted. If we have to keep something longer for a legal claim or a request from the authorities, we keep only what is needed, for as long as needed.
- Subscription status: while your account exists. Apple and Google keep their own purchase records under their privacy policies.
- Technical logs and backups: usually no more than 30 days.
When you delete your account, we delete your data as described in Deleting your account.
11. International transfers
Our providers run services in many countries, including the United States. When we transfer personal data from the EEA, UK or Switzerland to a country without an adequacy decision, we rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK addendum), with additional safeguards where needed.
12. Your rights and choices
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:
- access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy,
- correct data that is wrong (most of it you can edit yourself in Edit profile),
- delete your data (see Deleting your account),
- object to processing based on legitimate interests, or restrict it,
- receive your data in a portable format,
- withdraw consent at any time, without affecting earlier processing,
- opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal data and targeted advertising (US state laws), which you can do by declining personalised ads in Settings › Ad privacy choices.
To use any of these rights, email support@lingify.app from the address on your account. We'll answer within one month. We won't treat you differently for using your rights.
You can also complain to your local data protection authority. We'd appreciate the chance to sort things out with you first.
Other choices: turn off notifications in your phone settings, block or report members, and switch on incognito browsing with Pro.
13. Children
Lingify is for adults. You must be at least 17 years old to use it, and in the EEA and UK it is never offered to anyone under 16. Lingify carries a mature age rating on the App Store. We don't knowingly collect personal data from children. If we learn that a child has created an account, we delete it. If you think a child is using Lingify, report the profile in the app or email support@lingify.app.
14. Deleting your account
You can delete your account at any time in the app: open the You tab, tap Settings, then Delete account. If you can't open the app, follow the steps on our account deletion page.
Deletion is immediate and permanent. We delete your profile, photos, voice messages, phrasebook, role-plays and the conversations you were part of (they disappear for your partners too). Copies in backups and logs are removed within 30 days. Apple and Google keep their own records of any purchases you made.
Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription. Cancel it in your App Store or Google Play settings first.
15. Security
We protect your data with encryption in transit (HTTPS), access controls, and providers with strong security programmes. You can sign in with Apple, Google, or an email and password. We never store passwords in readable form, only as salted hashes, and password reset codes expire after 10 minutes. No system is perfectly secure, so please tell us at support@lingify.app if you find a problem.
16. Changes to this policy
We'll update this policy when Lingify changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
17. Contact us
Questions, requests or complaints about privacy: support@lingify.app.
Postal address: the company address in section 1.