Privacy Policy

Last Updated: January 31, 2026

At KidShelf, we take your family's privacy extremely seriously. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle information when you use our mobile application. The short version: we don't collect, store, or transmit your children's voice data. Everything stays on your device.

1. Information We Do NOT Collect

Let's be crystal clear about what we don't do:

• No Audio Recording: We do not record, store, or transmit any audio from your device's microphone. The speech recognition engine processes audio in real-time on your device and immediately discards it.
• No Voice Data Transmission: Your child's voice never leaves your device. We use on-device speech recognition that works entirely offline.
• No Cloud Processing: Unlike many apps, we don't send audio to cloud servers like Google, Amazon, or Apple for processing.
• No Personal Information: We don't collect names, email addresses, photos, or any personally identifiable information about your children.
• No Location Data: We don't access or track your location.
• No Contact Information: We don't access your contacts, phone number, or communication data.

2. Information Stored Locally on Your Device

KidShelf stores the following information only on your device (not on our servers):

• Child Profiles: Names and avatars you create for your children. This never leaves your device.
• Reading Progress: Which stories have been read, accuracy statistics, words practiced, and achievements earned.
• Speech Pattern Data: Analytics about which sounds your child is mastering or finding challenging.
• App Preferences: Settings like sensitivity levels, text size preferences, and app configuration.
• Downloaded Stories: Story content downloaded for offline reading.

3. How Speech Recognition Works

We want you to understand exactly how our speech recognition technology protects your privacy:

On-Device Processing

KidShelf uses advanced on-device speech recognition technology that runs entirely on your device. When your child reads aloud:

1. The microphone captures audio in small chunks
2. The audio is processed immediately by our on-device AI engine
3. The recognized text is compared against the story words
4. The audio is immediately discarded—it is never saved or transmitted

No Internet Required

Speech recognition works completely offline. You can put your device in airplane mode and the app will function fully. This is by design—we wanted to ensure that voice data physically cannot leave your device.

Native Speech (Optional)

The app offers an optional "Native Speech" mode that uses your device's built-in speech recognition (Google Speech on Android, Apple Speech on iOS). If you choose this option, audio may be processed according to Google's or Apple's privacy policies. We recommend using the default offline mode for maximum privacy.

4. Network Communications

KidShelf may connect to the internet for the following purposes only:

• Story Downloads: When you choose to download new stories from our story library or Project Gutenberg, we fetch story content (text and images).
• Dictionary Lookups: When you tap a word to see its definition, we may query a dictionary API (Free Dictionary API).
• App Updates: Standard app store update mechanisms.

None of these communications include any personal data, voice data, or information about your children.

5. Children's Privacy (COPPA Compliance)

KidShelf is designed for use by children and complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA):

• We do not collect personal information from children
• We do not require account creation or registration
• We do not have user accounts, logins, or profiles stored on our servers
• We do not display targeted advertising
• We do not have social features that allow children to communicate with others

6. Data Security

Since all data is stored locally on your device:

• Your data is protected by your device's security (PIN, fingerprint, Face ID)
• We cannot access your data—it never reaches us
• There is no risk of server breaches exposing your information
• You have complete control over your data at all times

7. Your Rights and Choices

Data Deletion

You can delete all app data at any time by:

• Uninstalling the app (removes all data)
• Clearing app data through your device settings
• Deleting individual child profiles within the app

Microphone Permission

You can revoke microphone permission at any time through your device settings. The app will still function for reading stories, but speech recognition features will be disabled.

8. Third-Party Services

KidShelf uses the following third-party services:

• On-Device Speech Recognition: Our speech recognition engine runs entirely on your device. No audio data is transmitted.
• Free Dictionary API: For word definitions. Only the word being looked up is sent; no personal data.
• Project Gutenberg: For public domain book content. No personal data is transmitted.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any significant changes by updating the "Last Updated" date and, if the changes are material, by providing a notice within the app.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@kidshelf.app
Website: https://kidshelf.app