The short version
- No account. No email, no password, no sign-in. You pick a character, Alex or Sara, so the story can greet you; the choice stays on your devices.
- No ads, no third-party analytics, no tracking across apps or websites.
- Your learning progress lives on your devices and syncs through your own iCloud account. We can’t see it.
- The microphone is used only for speaking exercises, and only if you allow it.
- Reminders are created on your device. Nothing about them is sent to us.
Who we are
El Recreo is an app for learning Rioplatense Spanish on iPhone, iPad and Mac, made by an independent developer, Aleksandr Riakhin (“we”, “us”). This policy covers the El Recreo app and this website. If you have a question about it, write to support@alexriakhin.com.
What we don’t collect
El Recreo is built so that we don’t need your personal data. The app has no account system and no sign-up. It contains no advertising, no third-party analytics and no tracking SDKs, and it does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites. The app has no servers of its own and talks to no third-party service. Purchases go through the App Store and progress sync goes through your own iCloud account, both run by Apple. We don’t sell or share personal data.
Your learning progress
Lessons you’ve completed, your answers, your settings and similar progress data are stored on your device. If you’re signed in to iCloud, this data is synced between your devices through Apple’s iCloud (CloudKit), in the private database of your iCloud account. Data in that private database is accessible to you, not to us; Apple handles it under the Apple Privacy Policy.
To remove it, delete the app from your devices. To also remove the synced copy, go to Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Account Storage (on Mac: System Settings → [your name] → iCloud) and delete El Recreo’s data.
Your character
When you first open the app, you pick who you are in the story: Alex or Sara. The choice sets the name the characters call you and the voice your own lines are spoken in. You never type a name, and you can change the character any time in Settings. It is stored on your device and, if you’re signed in to iCloud, synced to your other devices through iCloud key-value storage in your iCloud account. We never receive it.
Reminders and notifications
If you turn on reminders, the app schedules them on your device; they are not sent from a server. Each reminder is a short note from one of the app’s characters, with their picture, created and shown entirely on your device. Nothing about it is sent to us. You can turn reminders off in the app or in your device’s notification settings.
Widgets and ratings
Home Screen widgets read your progress from a shared container on the same device. Now and then the app may ask you to rate it, using Apple’s standard rating prompt; Apple handles your rating or review, and we only see what’s published on the App Store.
Problem reports
If you tap “Report a problem” in the app, your own email app opens with a message addressed to us. It already includes where you are in the course (lesson and step), the last Spanish line the app played, the app version, your device model, its system version and the app’s language, so we can find and fix the problem. Nothing is sent unless you send that email yourself, and we use it only to reply and fix the issue.
Microphone and speech recognition
Some exercises let you practice speaking. They are optional. The first time you start one, iOS, iPadOS or macOS asks for permission to use the microphone and speech recognition; you can say no and still use the rest of the app, and you can change your mind any time in Settings.
When you allow it, your speech is turned into text with Apple’s speech recognition so the app can check your answer. Recognition runs on your device wherever your device and language support it; otherwise Apple may process the audio under Apple’s own privacy policy. El Recreo does not record, keep or upload your voice, and we never receive it.
Listening to Spanish
The Spanish you hear in the app is recorded in advance and included in the app, so it plays offline and nothing is sent anywhere when you listen. For anything without a recording, the app falls back to the text-to-speech voices built into your device. Either way, nothing is sent to us.
Purchases
Parts of the course are sold as one-time in-app purchases. Payment is handled entirely by Apple through the App Store; we never receive your payment details or your Apple ID.
To check which levels you own and to restore them on your other devices, the app asks the App Store directly, using Apple’s StoreKit. Apple keeps the purchase records; we don’t receive them and have no server that holds them. All we see is the aggregate sales information Apple shows in App Store Connect, which doesn’t identify you.
This website
This website is a set of static pages hosted on GitHub Pages. It uses no cookies, no analytics and no tracking scripts. The voice samples on the home page are audio files served from this same site, and they play only when you tap them. Like any web host, GitHub may log technical data such as IP addresses to keep the service secure (see the GitHub Privacy Statement). The site’s fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, so your browser connects to Google’s servers to download them (see the Google Privacy Policy). If you email us, we use your message and address only to reply.
Children
El Recreo does not collect personal information from anyone, including children.
Changes to this policy
If the app changes in a way that affects your privacy, we’ll update this page and the date at the top before the change takes effect.
Contact
Questions or requests: support@alexriakhin.com.