Does the Speak Easy Kids app collect my child's name or email?

No. The app has no accounts and no sign-in anywhere, for any edition, and for a Kids session specifically the code does not render an email or name field at all -- it shows a note instead, explaining that a grown-up can set that up for themselves from Settings.

Where does my child's progress get stored?

On the device, in the browser's own local storage. Stars, streaks, and which days are complete never leave the device.

Does the app send anything to your servers?

A small number of anonymous, named counters, such as someone opening the app for the first time or finishing a day. No IP address, device ID, cookie, or name is stored alongside them, and nothing finer than the calendar day is recorded.

Privacy & Safety for Parents

This page is specifically about the free companion app and the Kids edition of the book, written for a parent deciding whether to hand a 6-to-12-year-old a device with this on it. It says exactly what we collect, in plain language, backed by the actual code rather than a marketing promise. For the site-wide policy that covers speakeasybooks.com as a whole, see the full Privacy Policy.

The short version:

No accounts, anywhere in the app. Your child is never asked to sign up, log in, or create a password.
The app will not even show a Kids session a field to enter an email address or a name. That's not a setting we turned off — the code doesn't build the field for a child's session in the first place.
Your child's reading progress, stars, and streaks stay on the device, in the browser's own storage. None of it is transmitted anywhere.
We do collect a handful of anonymous usage counts (like "someone opened the app for the first time") to know the app is working. They carry no name, no device ID, no IP address, and nothing more precise than the calendar day — there is no way to trace one back to a person.

Inside the companion app

No accounts, no sign-in

This is true for every edition of the app, not just Kids: there has never been a login screen, a password, or a "create your account" step. It was a deliberate product decision, not a feature we haven't built yet.

What stays on the device

Reading progress, which day a reader is on, stars earned, and which units are complete are all stored in the browser's local storage on that one device. This data is never sent to us. If you clear that browser's data or switch devices, progress starts fresh, because there is nowhere else it's kept.

What we do collect: anonymous counts

The app pings our server for a short, fixed list of named events — things like "the app was opened for the first time" or "a reader finished their first, second, or third day." Each one is a bare increment: an event name and the calendar date, nothing else. The server that receives it is written so that it cannot store an IP address, a device identifier, a cookie, or a timestamp more precise than the day, because a promise like this only means something if it's enforced in the code, not just stated on a page like this one.

The optional "help us improve the books" signal

There is a second, richer channel that can tell us which chapters helped and whether a practice move worked. It is off for every reader by default, and turning it on requires a grown-up to say yes explicitly in Settings. Even when it's on, what it sends is always a fixed label built by the app itself — never anything a person typed. As a second, independent check, the server also rejects anything that looks like an email address before it's stored, in case a fixed label was ever built wrong.

Specific to the Kids edition

A Kids session never shows the email or name field that other editions offer for an optional "send me my plan" reminder. If a grown-up wants that reminder for themselves, they set it up from Settings, on their own — it is never presented as something to ask a child for, mid-story or otherwise.

On this website

Separate from the app: speakeasybooks.com, including this Kids section, uses GoatCounter, a small, cookie-free visit counter, to see roughly how many people visit each page. GoatCounter does not use cookies, does not store your IP address, and does not track you across visits or sites.

If a parent chooses to sign up for the free weekly guide by email further down the Kids page, we collect the email address entered, through a service called Kit (formerly ConvertKit), so we can send what was signed up for. That's opt-in only — nothing is collected unless the form is filled in and submitted — and every email includes an unsubscribe link. The full detail on that, including how to have it deleted, is in the site-wide Privacy Policy.

No ads, no ad trackers, and no cross-site tracking pixels run anywhere on this site or in the app, and we do not sell data to anyone.

Made for a young reader

The Kids edition of the app is built as a companion to the printed or Kindle book, meant to be set up and used with a grown-up rather than handed to a child cold.

There is no chat, no message board, and no way for a child to send a message to a stranger, to us, or to anyone else inside the Kids edition. The one free-text box that exists elsewhere in the app, for describing a situation in your own words, is switched off entirely for Kids sessions at the code level — not hidden, removed from that edition's paths altogether.
There is no panic or crisis control in the Kids edition. That's by design: Kids has its own, gentler help screen instead, built for a younger reader's situations rather than an adult one.
The book and app never ask a child to identify themselves, their school, or their location.

Your rights, and how to reach us

If you believe your child was ever asked for personal information anywhere in this product, or you have any question about what's described on this page, contact us at speakeasybookshelf@gmail.com and we will look into it and fix it. The site-wide Privacy Policy covers your formal rights to access, correct, or delete information we hold, and how to unsubscribe from any email.

We may update this page as the app changes. When we do, the "Last updated" date at the top will change with it.