Privacy Policy
This policy explains what VGS (Vocabulary Grind System, “the app”) collects, why, and what you can do about it. The app is operated by Dmytro Ostapchenko.
Accounts, including guest accounts
The app works against a server. Even if you skip signing in, the app creates a guest account for you on that server, and your words and progress are stored there. A guest account has no email address attached to it and no way to identify you personally, but it is not an offline mode.
If you later sign in, your guest data can be merged into the signed-in account.
What we store
- Your email address, if you sign in with email, Apple, or Google. It identifies your account and receives one-time sign-in codes. Guest accounts get a generated internal address instead.
- Your display name, if the sign-in provider supplies one.
- Your words. The entries you add, together with the generated card for each one: translations, examples, usage notes, synonyms, and audio pronunciation.
- Your learning progress. Per-word scores, the state of the current lesson, lesson history, streak, and word preferences.
- The languages you chose — the one you are learning and the one you already speak.
- A device session record, so that an account is used on one device at a time.
- Usage analytics, described below.
We do not collect your contacts, location, browsing history, or advertising identifiers, and we do not use third-party advertising or tracking SDKs.
Photos and the camera
If you use the scan feature, the photo you take or pick is sent to Anthropic so the words in it can be extracted. We do not keep the image on our server, and we do not read your photo library beyond the single image you select.
Signing in with Apple or Google
We request only your basic profile and email address, and use them to create or find your account. We do not request or receive access to Gmail, Drive, Calendar, iCloud, or any other service of those providers.
If an account already exists with the same email address, signing in with a provider links to that existing account rather than creating a second one.
Analytics
The app sends product analytics through our server to OpenPanel, an analytics tool we host ourselves on the same machine. Events cover things like app launches, screens opened, sign-in attempts, lesson starts and results, words added or deleted, scans, backups, and notification permissions. Each event carries app version, OS version, platform, and the language pair you selected.
Events are tied to your account identifier once you sign in, and to a random device identifier before that. The text of your words is never sent to analytics.
How your data is used
To run the app: to sync your words across devices, to build lessons, to grade your answers, and to understand which parts of the app are used. It is not used for advertising, and it is not sold or rented to anyone.
Third parties
- Anthropic (Claude API). Receives the word or text you are working on when a card is generated, an answer is graded, a photo is scanned, suggestions are made, or synonyms are fetched. Your email address and account identifier are not included.
- OpenAI. Receives the word text alone, to synthesise the audio pronunciation.
- Apple and Google. Only if you choose to sign in with them, and only for authentication.
- An email provider. Delivers one-time sign-in codes to your address.
- A file storage service. Receives the daily database backup. It is encrypted on our server before it leaves, and the storage provider cannot read its contents.
Where your data is stored
Account data is stored on a private server located in the European Union. Access is limited to the operator.
How long we keep it
We keep your data for as long as your account exists. If you delete your account, the account record and everything attached to it — words, progress, lesson history — is deleted from the database immediately. A guest account that is not used for 30 days is deleted automatically.
Encrypted backups of the database are kept off-site and may still contain a copy of deleted data until those backups are rotated out.
Your choices
- Delete your account. Available inside the app, in account settings, for guest and signed-in accounts alike. It is immediate and cannot be undone.
- Export your data. The app can write your words and progress to a file you keep yourself.
- Turn off reminders. Notification permission is yours to refuse or revoke at any time in iOS settings.
- Request a copy or a correction. Email us and we will respond within 30 days.
Children
The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what we collect or how we use it, we will update the date at the top of this page.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data: dimaostapchenko@gmail.com