Privacy Policy

The short version

Hangul Route is for anyone learning Hangul, at any age — and many of our learners are children. We collect as little as possible, never show ads, and never sell data. Each learner's nickname and progress are kept on the device and backed up to our servers, so they can be restored with a Rescue Code. When the learner is a child, a parent is always in control.

Who creates the account

Accounts are created and managed by the account holder (a parent or legal guardian when the learner is a child). When the learner is a child, the child uses the app, but a grown-up sets it up, enters any billing details, and confirms consent behind a parent-gate. We do not knowingly let a child under 13 create an account without verifiable parental consent.

What we collect

• Learner profile: a display nickname and a starting level the learner picks (Pictures first / Some reading / Reads easily). It describes how much the learner reads, not how old they are, and we do not need a birth date to use it. A real name is optional and only stored if a parent enters it.
• Learning progress: quests completed, stars earned, cards unlocked, streaks, and which jamo a learner recognizes — so the journey can resume and a parent can see progress. For progress reports we also keep: for the last 35 days, which days were practiced, with minutes, quests, cards and words for each day; monthly totals for up to 24 months; all-time totals since the first practice day; the day each stage was finished; the letters that became strong each day; the next lesson and one lesson to revisit; and the device's time zone, so days are counted in the learner's local time.
• Who can see progress and reports: the learner's family caregivers, who can also recover the full saved progress; the teacher of a class the learner joined; and the owner and admins of that class's school. A class sees day-by-day history only from the day the learner joined, and all-time totals without the first practice day.
• Notes from grown-ups: the learner's family, and the teacher of a class the learner joined, can send the learner short notes that start from a set of reviewed messages. In a family, only the family owner and the adults the owner allows can send. The learner cannot write back: they can only pick one of four fixed answers, such as "Thank you". A teacher sees the notes sent in their class and, unless the family limits class notes, that answer, but never whether a note was opened. The learner's family caregivers see every note to the learner, and which family adult sent a note from home, and can hide or report a note or stop notes from one sender. A note can also be put away or reported from the learner's device. A sender can take a note back at any time: it leaves the learner's devices, and the learner's family can still see it. We keep notes for 180 days, and a reported note until 90 days after its last report so we can review it. To have a note deleted sooner, the learner's family can email hello@hangulroute.com.
• Account contact: a parent email, used for sign-in, receipts, and account recovery.
• Basic device and diagnostic data: app version, device type, and crash logs, to keep the app stable.

What we never collect

• No advertising identifiers and no third-party ad tracking — ever.
• No precise location.
• No contacts, photos, or microphone audio leaves the device. Voice mini-games process speech on-device and discard it.
• No behavioral profiles sold or shared for marketing.

Children's privacy (COPPA / GDPR-K)

Many of our learners are children. Hangul Route is designed to comply with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar rules for minors. We practice data minimization, require verifiable parental consent before any personal data is linked to an account, and give parents the right to review or delete their child’s data at any time.

Launch-news email list

On our website you can leave your email address to get Hangul Route launch news. This list is separate from the app and from any account.

What we collect: the email address you type into the launch form, the date you signed up, which form on our site it came from, your language setting, and which version of the consent text you saw. We do not store your IP address or any browser details.

Why: only to send you Hangul Route launch news. Your address is never sold or shared.

Who stores it: our own database on Cloudflare. We do not pass it to a third-party newsletter service.

How long: until the launch news ends or you ask us to remove it.

Removal and erasure: to be taken off the list, or to have your address erased, email hello@hangulroute.com from the address you signed up with and we will remove it.

Signing up is optional and does not depend on using the app. The app itself does not require an email address to learn.

Where your data lives

Learning data is kept on the device and backed up to our servers (Cloudflare), with no sign-in needed. The first time the app saves a learner, it sends their nickname, level and avatar. It backs up their progress when it starts and after each change, so the learner can be restored on a new device with a Rescue Code. If you later change the nickname, level or avatar, the backup keeps the old ones for now; to change them, email us. The app also sends us usage events, such as a finished quest, which can include the learner's id. Data in transit is encrypted (HTTPS), and at rest it is access-controlled.

Payments and subscriptions

On the web, a grown-up pays through Stripe after signing in at app.hangulroute.com. In the iPhone and Android apps, purchases (when offered) go through the App Store or Google Play. We never see or store full card numbers — Stripe or the store handles payment. For each plan we keep the plan, its status and dates, the Stripe, store or contract reference ids, the number of seats on a school contract, any promotion code used, and a record of each payment and refund, and of any payment that did not go through (amount, currency, date and its reference id).

Third-party services

• Stripe — payments and subscription management for plans bought on the web. We give Stripe the email address the grown-up signed in with, for receipts, and the plan, our reference ids for it and any promotion code used, so each payment is matched to the right plan.
• Apple App Store / Google Play — payments and subscription management for in-app purchases.
• Cloudflare — hosting, storage, and content delivery.
• We do not use third-party advertising or social-media tracking SDKs.

Parental rights and choices

A parent can review, export, correct, or delete their child’s data, withdraw consent, and close the account. To make a request, email us from the address on the account and we will respond within 30 days.

Data retention and security

We keep account data while the account is active and delete it within 90 days of an account being closed, unless we are legally required to keep it longer. We use industry-standard safeguards, but no system is perfectly secure.

Changes to this policy

If we make a material change, we will notify parents in the app or by email before it takes effect. The date below shows the current version.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hello@hangulroute.com. We read everything.