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Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 7, 2026

The short version: Dictation Buddy has no accounts and asks for no personal information. Your study progress is saved only in your own browser, on your own device — we never see it. The only data that leaves your device is the vocabulary word list you choose to send to the optional AI features, and even that is not tied to your identity.

1. Who we are

"Dictation Buddy" ("we," "us," or "the app") is a free web application for practicing Chinese dictation, reading, and listening. This policy explains what data the app touches and how. If you have questions, contact us at YOUR_CONTACT_EMAIL.

2. Who can use the app

Dictation Buddy is intended for users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, contact us and we will address it promptly.

3. Information we do not collect

We designed the app to be privacy-first. We do not:

4. Information stored on your own device

To make the app useful, we save some information locally in your browser using localStorage. This includes things like your streak count, spaced-repetition review schedule, language and layout preferences, chosen voice, and onboarding status.

This data never leaves your device and is not transmitted to us. You can erase it at any time by clearing your browser's site data for this site, or by using your browser's "clear data" settings. Clearing it resets your progress.

5. Information sent to third-party services

AI features (Google Gemini)

When you use an optional AI feature (for example, the AI Quiz or AI-generated reading and listening items), the vocabulary word list or prompt you choose is sent to our server function, which forwards it to Google's Gemini API to generate or grade the exercise. We send only the study content needed for that request — not your identity. Google processes this data under its own terms and privacy policy. On free API tiers, Google may use submitted prompts to improve its models, so please do not enter sensitive or personal information into AI features.

Hosting (Vercel)

The site is hosted on Vercel. Like most web hosts, Vercel automatically processes standard technical request data (such as IP address, browser type, and timestamps) in server logs for security, abuse prevention, and reliability. We use a short-lived, best-effort per-IP rate limit to prevent abuse of the AI function. This technical data is handled by Vercel under its own privacy policy.

Educational content sources

The app loads open educational resources — stroke-order data (Hanzi Writer), pinyin conversion (pinyin-pro), example sentences (Tatoeba, CC-BY), and dictionary data (CC-CEDICT) — some of which are delivered from public content-delivery networks. These requests are standard web requests and are not used to profile you.

6. Cookies and tracking

We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking or analytics pixels. The app relies on local browser storage (described in Section 4) to remember your preferences, not on cross-site tracking cookies.

7. Data security

The site is served over HTTPS, and our AI API key is stored server-side and never exposed to your browser. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect the limited data the app handles.

8. Your choices and rights

Because we don't hold personal data about you on our servers, there is generally nothing for us to look up, export, or delete. You control the data stored in your browser and can clear it at any time. If you are in a region with data-protection rights (such as the EEA, UK, or California) and have a question about your data, contact us and we will help where we can.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we'll change the "Last updated" date above. Significant changes will be reflected on this page.

10. Contact

Questions about privacy? Email YOUR_CONTACT_EMAIL.