HearStep.me
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Privacy Policy

Effective date:

01First-party aggregate statistics

We no longer load Google Analytics. We count page views, coarse referral categories (direct, search, social or other referral), practice starts and checkout actions on our own server. No analytics cookies, fingerprinting or persistent visitor identifiers are used. Requests omit login cookies and the referrer URL; counters contain only the UTC date, allowed page/event/category/plan and total count, not IP addresses, account IDs, email, subtitles or material contents. Active counters are retained for up to 365 days and older rows are removed on the next collection request; backups follow the separate retention policy below. We cannot identify unique visitors, returning visitors or individual conversion paths. You may disable collection in Analytics settings in the footer; existing refusals and browser DNT/GPC signals are respected. A manually selected setting is stored locally until changed or browser storage is cleared, solely to remember your preference. Registration and confirmed billing totals are calculated separately from business records, not linked to browsing counters. Connection data is necessarily processed to receive requests; analytics endpoint access logging is disabled. Other operational/security logs remain as described below. Previously collected Google data is not automatically erased by this change.

02Country and region totals

For page views, our server briefly uses the connection IP with a local DB-IP country database. Visitor IPs are not sent to a geolocation provider, saved in analytics tables or cached for tracking. A separate table stores only UTC date, country/region code and total views for up to 365 days, without account or event-level linkage. VPNs and proxies can affect accuracy; this is not nationality or precise location. Historical and unrecognized visits appear as unknown. The same analytics opt-out and DNT/GPC controls apply.

03Account data and browser storage

We use your account email, password hash, authentication sessions and language preferences to provide and secure the service. Signed-in records may contain progress, practice time, completed sentences, favorites and dictation. Cookies support authentication and security; browser storage holds preferences, local learning data and private imports. Clearing browser storage can remove these materials. Files and optional subtitles submitted for processing are uploaded to our server. We use local transcription, alignment and sentence segmentation first. When the administrator enables API fallback, audio may be sent to Alibaba Cloud Bailian. Temporary processing files have a 48-hour validity period. Practice copies remain in your browser; browser storage is not a cloud backup.

04Third-party services and payments

YouTube and external media connect to their providers. Dictionary requests and sentence translations may send requested words or text to relevant providers, including Alibaba Cloud Bailian for translation. Paddle handles checkout and billing data; HearStep receives transaction identifiers and subscription status, not your full card number or security code.

05Hosting, security and retention

Our application server and databases are currently hosted in Seoul, South Korea, so service data may be processed outside your country. Operational and security logs may include IP addresses, request paths, timestamps, browser information and response status. Nginx is configured for daily rotation retaining ten rotated log files; actual time coverage varies with activity and rotation. Account and learning records are retained for continuing access and progress. Daily backups currently have no automated expiry, so deletion from all backups within a fixed period cannot be promised. Browser materials remain until removed by you or your browser. HTTPS, password hashing and access controls reduce risk, but no system is risk-free.

06Your choices and policy updates

You can change preferences, sign out and delete local browser data. Account export, deletion and closure are not self-service; contact support@hearstep.me for requests. Applicable privacy rights remain unaffected. We update this notice when processing practices change.

support@hearstep.me