Privacy policy

Kiko (heykikoapp.com) is run by [TODO: legal entity name], based in [TODO: jurisdiction]. In this policy “we” means them. For anything about your data, write to support@heykikoapp.com.

Your account. Your email address and name, and a password (stored only as a one-way hash) if you sign up with one. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address and profile picture from Google. We also keep a record of your sign-in sessions, including the IP address and browser they came from, so you stay signed in and so we can spot misuse.

Your study data. What you do in Kiko is what makes it work for you, so we store it: your settings and goals, your practice conversations (the transcript of what you and Kiko said), your daily log entries, your vocabulary and grammar progress, review history, and the learner model Kiko builds from all of this.

Voice. When you speak to Kiko, your recording is sent to our speech-to-text provider to be transcribed, and the text comes back. We do not store the audio; the transcript is kept as part of the conversation or log it belongs to. Kiko's spoken replies are made by your own browser, so nothing is sent anywhere for those.

Usage of AI features. For each AI request we record which feature was used, the model, and how many tokens it took, so we can manage costs and limits.

Payments. If you subscribe, payment is handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card number; we keep your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers and the state of your subscription.

The waitlist. If you join the waitlist, we keep your email address, which form you used, the page that referred you (when your browser says), and any answers you give to the short questionnaire.

Visits to the public pages. On this site's home page, guides and legal pages, we record anonymously which pages you visit and what you click, how quickly the page loaded, any errors it ran into, and a replay of the visit: your scrolling, mouse movement and clicks as they happened. Anything you type, such as your email address in the waitlist form, is hidden in the replay. None of this happens inside the app.

• To provide the service you signed up for: running conversations, corrections, reviews and your log.
• To keep your account secure and the service working, and to prevent abuse.
• To take payments and manage your subscription.
• To email you about your account (sign-in links, verification, password resets, billing).
• To email waitlist members when Kiko opens, and, if you said yes, to arrange a short chat.
• To understand, in aggregate, how the public pages are used, and to improve Kiko.

We do not sell your data, and we do not use it for advertising. [TODO: legal bases for processing, if required in the operator's jurisdiction (e.g. contract, legitimate interests, consent)]

Kiko's conversations, corrections, log analysis and grading are produced by AI models run by third parties. To answer you, the relevant text — what you said or wrote, the recent conversation, and the parts of your learner profile a feature needs (such as the words you are practising) — is sent to those providers. They process it to return a response. [TODO: confirm and state each AI provider's retention and model-training terms]

We also send a record of each AI request and its response to an observability service, so we can debug problems and check the quality of Kiko's answers.

We use these service providers, each only for the job listed:

• Vercel — hosts the website and the app's servers.
• Neon — hosts the database where your account and study data are stored.
• Groq — runs the AI models for conversations, corrections and analysis, and transcribes your voice recordings.
• TypeSafe — an AI model used to identify the grammar points in Japanese sentences.
• Langfuse — records AI requests and responses so we can debug and improve them.
• Stripe — processes subscription payments.
• Resend — sends account emails.
• Google — only if you choose “Continue with Google” to sign in.
• PostHog — anonymous analytics and visit replays on the public pages (this site's home page, guides and legal pages) only; never inside the app.

Some of these providers are in the United States or other countries, so your data may be processed outside the country you live in. [TODO: international transfer safeguards, if required]

• Session cookie — keeps you signed in. It is essential, and the app cannot work without it.
• Analytics — on the public pages only, PostHog stores an anonymous identifier in a cookie and in your browser's local storage to count visits and clicks and to piece a visit's replay together. It is not linked to your account.
• Preferences — the app keeps a few small things in your browser's storage, such as an unsaved log draft and whether you dismissed a suggestion.

[TODO: cookie consent approach, if required in the operator's jurisdiction]

We keep your account and study data for as long as you have an account. When you delete your account, it and all your study data are deleted from our database straight away, and your Stripe subscription is cancelled. Copies in backups and in our providers' logs expire on their own schedules, normally within [TODO: backup and log retention period]. AI request records in Langfuse are kept for [TODO: Langfuse retention period]. Payment records are kept as long as tax law requires. Waitlist entries are kept until Kiko opens and we have emailed you, or until you ask us to remove yours. [TODO: decide whether deleting an account also removes your waitlist entry]

• Export. Settings → Account lets you download everything Kiko holds about your learning as a JSON file.
• Delete. Settings → Account lets you delete your account and all its data.
• Correct. You can change your name and settings in the app, or ask us to correct anything else.
• Ask. Write to support@heykikoapp.com to ask what we hold, to object to or restrict a use, or to leave the waitlist.

You may also have the right to complain to your data protection authority. [TODO: name the relevant authority for the operator's jurisdiction]

Data travels over encrypted connections, passwords are hashed, and access to the database is limited to the service itself. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we will tell you as the law requires.

Kiko is not meant for children under [TODO: minimum age], and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you think a child has signed up, write to us and we will delete the account.

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will say so on this page and, if you have an account, by email before the change takes effect. See also the terms of service.