Privacy policy

We do not run our own servers for the app and we do not collect your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos or other personal information. There is no sign-up and no account, and there is nowhere in the app to type personal details: you learn by arranging words that are already on the screen.

The app uses two outside services, both from Google: Google AdMob, which shows the ads, and Google Analytics for Firebase, which gives us statistics about how the app is used. Both are described below, and each processes some information under Google's own policies.

The app is free and is paid for by ads provided by Google AdMob. There are three kinds:

• a banner at the top of the screen;
• a full-screen ad that appears from time to time after you finish a sentence;
• an optional video ad that you can choose to watch to unlock a bonus sentence. You can always skip it and keep learning.

To deliver and measure these ads, and to prevent fraud, the Google Mobile Ads software in the app automatically collects and sends to Google:

• device identifiers, such as your Android advertising ID;
• your IP address, which may be used to estimate your general location;
• how you interact with the ads and the app, such as app launches, taps and ad views;
• diagnostic information, such as app launch time and performance.

Google and its advertising partners may use this information to show ads, including personalised ads where you allow them, to measure how ads perform and to detect fraud. This is covered by Google's privacy policy; see also how Google uses information from apps that use its services. We do not receive this information in a form that identifies you.

Where privacy law requires it, for example in the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, the app shows Google's consent form before any ads are loaded. If that applies to you, a “Privacy options” button appears in the app's Settings, and you can use it to change your choice at any time. On any Android phone you can also reset or delete your advertising ID in the phone's settings, under Privacy, then Ads.

The app uses Google Analytics for Firebase so we can see which parts of the app help learners and which do not. It records simple events when you use the app:

• learning activity: placing a word, completing a sentence, moving to the next sentence or asking for a hint, together with the sentence's number, topic and level and how many hints were used;
• when you listen to a sentence or open a translation, and in which language;
• which tab you open (for example Progress or Settings);
• when you change the language, switch sound effects on or off, or switch the daily reminder on or off;
• when you tap “Share with a friend” or “Rate Scrambly”.

Google Analytics also collects some information automatically, such as a random identifier for this installation of the app, your advertising ID, your device model, Android version, app version, language and country or region (estimated from your IP address), and general events such as first opening the app and how long a session lasts.

None of this includes your name, your email address or anything you write, and we do not try to work out who an individual learner is. We look at the totals. Google's handling of this data is covered by Google's privacy policy; see also privacy and security in Firebase.

To remember where you are between sessions, the app saves a few values in its own private storage on your phone:

• your progress: which sentences you have completed, how many you completed on each day (this is how your streak is counted) and any bonus sentence you have unlocked;
• the sentence you are working on, so you can carry on where you stopped;
• your settings: sound effects on or off and your chosen language;
• your daily reminder: whether it is on, and the time you picked;
• your ad consent choice, where one was asked for.

These values stay on your device and we cannot see them. You can erase them at any time by clearing the app's data in your phone's settings, or by uninstalling the app.

If you have switched on Android's backup for your phone, Android may include this data in the backup stored in your own Google account, so it can be restored on a new phone. That backup is controlled by you and by Google; we have no access to it.

The app can remind you to practise once a day. The reminder is off unless you switch it on in Settings, and on Android 13 and later your phone asks for your permission to show notifications first. The reminder is created by your own phone at the time you choose. It is not sent from a server and we do not use push messaging. You can switch it off again in Settings or in your phone's notification settings.

When you tap the speaker button, or press and hold a word, the app asks the text-to-speech engine that is already installed on your phone to read the English text aloud. The app only hands over the sentence or word from the lesson. It never records sound, never uses your microphone and does not send audio anywhere. The speech engine belongs to your phone (on many phones it is made by Google or by the phone's manufacturer) and works under its own settings and privacy policy.

• Internet access, to load ads and send usage statistics.
• Advertising ID, used by Google for ads and usage statistics.
• Notifications, only if you switch on the daily reminder.

The app does not ask for your location, camera, microphone, contacts, files or photos.

The sentences, pictures and translations are stored inside the app, so the lessons themselves work without a connection. The app uses the internet to load ads, to ask for ad consent where required, and to send usage statistics. The buttons “Share with a friend” and “Rate Scrambly” open your phone's share menu or Google Play; the app sends nothing by itself, and you choose whether to share and with whom.

We do not sell your personal information. Apart from the information Google AdMob and Google Analytics for Firebase process as described above, the app does not share data with third parties.

What is saved on your device stays there until you clear the app's data or uninstall the app. We keep no copy of it.

Usage statistics that can be linked to an advertising ID or to an installation of the app are kept by Google Analytics for a limited time, no longer than 14 months, after which only combined totals remain. Information collected for advertising is kept by Google under its own retention rules, which are explained in how Google retains data.

• Change your ad consent with the “Privacy options” button in the app's Settings, where it is shown.
• Reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings, under Privacy, then Ads. This stops ads and statistics from being linked to that ID.
• Clear the app's data or uninstall the app to erase everything it has saved on your phone and to stop all collection.
• Switch the daily reminder on or off in the app's Settings.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask for access to, or deletion of, personal data. We hold no information that identifies you, but if you write to us we will help you as far as we can, including pointing you to the right place at Google.

Scrambly is a general learning app for people of any age who are beginning English. It is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided personal information through the app, please contact us and we will help.

If the app changes in a way that affects your privacy, we will update this page and change the effective date at the top.

Questions about this policy or the app? Email Jalal Technologies at jalal.technologies@gmail.com.