Hootle Xiangqi ("the App") teaches children xiangqi (Chinese chess): games against a ladder of robot opponents and a school of short lessons. It is free to try, with one in-app purchase that unlocks the rest. This policy says exactly what the App does and does not do with information.
The App does not ask for, collect or transmit names, email addresses, phone numbers, location, contacts, photos, voice recordings, advertising identifiers, device identifiers, or any other information that identifies a person. It does not use the camera or the microphone, and asks for no permission except internet access.
The App saves a few small settings only on the device: the chosen language, whether lessons are read aloud (Spoken prompts), whether the music is on, whether the pieces show pictures or Chinese characters, which lessons have been finished (and their stars), and whether the full game has been bought. None of this is sent anywhere. Uninstalling the App deletes it.
The owl reads the lessons aloud. In some languages it uses recorded voice clips: the first time a lesson is read aloud in such a language, the App downloads a small pack of recordings from our file server (packs.hootle.app, on Cloudflare) and keeps it on the device. The request says only which language's pack is wanted; nothing about the child is sent, and like any download the device's IP address reaches the server, which uses it only to send the file back.
Otherwise, and for any sentence the recordings do not cover, it uses the device's own text-to-speech voice (Apple's on iOS, the installed speech engine, usually Google's, on Android). The App passes it only the lesson's sentence, never anything about the child. Depending on the device's settings, that operating-system service may use the network for some voices, under its own privacy policy (Apple, Google). Reading aloud can be turned off in Settings (Spoken prompts); with it off, no recordings are downloaded.
This download, and the purchase check below, are the App's only use of the internet.
The App contains no analytics, crash reporting, tracking or advertising software, ours or anyone else's. It does not record which games are played, for how long, or how well.
The App has one in-app purchase, which unlocks the rest of the school and the robots. It is behind a parental gate, a question for a grown-up, and is paid through Google Play or the App Store, which handle the payment under their own terms; we never see payment details or who bought it. The App only asks the store whether the full game is owned on this account, and remembers the answer on the device.
The App is made for children and is designed to comply with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the EU GDPR provisions for children, Google Play's Families Policy and Apple's rules for the Kids category. It collects no personal information from a child, so there is nothing for a parent to review or delete with us. There are no social features, no chat, no user profiles, nothing a child makes is shared, and there are no links that take a child out of the App.
We do not integrate advertising networks, analytics or social media SDKs, and we do not sell or share data with anyone.
Uninstalling the App removes everything it stored on the device, the recorded voice included. With Spoken prompts off, the App connects to the internet only to ask the store about the purchase. For anything else, write to support@hootle.app and we will help.
If we change how the App handles information, we will update this page and the "Effective date" above. Material changes will come with a new version of the App.
Questions about this policy? Email support@hootle.app.