Errly Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 2026
Last Updated: October 10, 2026

Errly (“we”, “us”, or “our”) provides an AI-assisted learning application that helps you understand and review problems across mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and other academic subjects, including subjects you define yourself. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect your information when you use the Errly mobile application and related services (collectively, the “Services”).

This policy is designed to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the United States, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and GDPR-K (children’s digital consent rules) in the European Union, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Information You Provide

• Account information: If you choose to create an account, we collect your email address or Apple/Google sign-in identifier.
• Photos of problems: When you use the camera or photo library feature, we process the image you capture or select.
• Hand-corrected or manually entered text: You may edit OCR results or type problems manually.
• Study data: Saved errors, review history, mastery scores, notes, and error-cause tags.
• Subscription information: Purchases and subscription status are handled by our payment processors (Apple App Store, Google Play, and RevenueCat).

1.2 Information Collected Automatically

• Device information: Device type, operating system version, app version, anonymous installation identifier, and a device identifier (the Android ID on Android; an identifier generated by the app and stored in the device keychain on iOS). The device identifier is hashed on our servers and used only to prevent abuse of the free daily allowance across multiple accounts on one device; it is not used for analytics or advertising, and the hashed value is automatically deleted after 7 days.
• Crash and performance data: Collected via Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Performance Monitoring to maintain app stability.
• Feedback you send us: If you use in-app feedback, we receive your description, any screenshots you choose to attach (up to 3), your email address if you provide one, and technical context that helps us reproduce the problem (app version, platform, current plan, operating system, language, and the IDs of recently failed solution attempts, if any).
• Usage analytics: Event-level analytics via Firebase Analytics, such as feature usage and conversion funnels. Analytics are not collected for EU users aged 13–16 in semi-restricted mode.
• Advertising identifiers: Ads are served through Google AdMob, which may also request ads from mediation partners (Unity Ads, Pangle and Liftoff Monetize) when its own demand does not fill. Advertising IDs are collected only with your consent — through the Google UMP consent form in regions where such consent is required (for example the EEA, the UK and Switzerland), and through your platform-level advertising settings (Android advertising ID controls, or Apple's App Tracking Transparency) elsewhere. Users in semi-restricted mode receive non-personalized ads only.
• SKAdNetwork conversion value (iOS only): On iOS, the AppsFlyer SDK (see the next item) updates Apple's SKAdNetwork conversion value to reflect which app milestones you have reached (for example, completing onboarding or starting a trial). SKAdNetwork is designed by Apple to measure advertising effectiveness in aggregate, without sharing device-level identifiers.
• Install attribution (AppsFlyer): To measure which of our advertising campaigns (for example on Meta or TikTok) led to an install, and whether those users go on to use the app, we use AppsFlyer. In normal mode and while Share usage analytics is on, the AppsFlyer SDK collects device information, IP address, your app user ID, advertising identifiers (on iOS, the IDFA only if you allow App Tracking Transparency; on Android, the advertising ID subject to your device settings), the identifier for vendors (IDFV, iOS), Apple Search Ads attribution data, and a small set of in-app events (completing onboarding, completing your first problem, starting a trial or subscription). Purchase amounts are reported to AppsFlyer by RevenueCat. AppsFlyer is not used in semi-restricted mode.
• Network data: IP address, which may be used to determine approximate region for age-gate jurisdiction purposes.

1.3 Information We Do NOT Collect

• We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
• We do not collect precise location data.
• We do not collect government-issued identifiers, real names, or contact lists.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Provide AI-powered step-by-step explanations for problems across mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and other supported subjects.
• Maintain your personal error notebook and spaced-review schedule.
• Process and improve OCR accuracy using on-device ML Kit and Google Cloud Vision.
• Process AI generation requests through our secure Cloud Functions proxy to our AI model providers: Google Gemini (primary provider) and, when daily usage reaches the fair-use limit or Gemini is unavailable, DeepSeek or models accessed through OpenRouter.
• Authenticate users and manage subscriptions.
• Deliver and measure advertising (only for users who have provided consent and are not in semi-restricted mode).
• Analyze app performance, diagnose crashes, and improve user experience.
• Prevent abuse of free usage allowances (for example, repeatedly creating new accounts on the same device to reset the daily free limit).
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.
• Measure the effectiveness of our own marketing campaigns (install attribution), including sharing install and in-app event conversions with the advertising network that ran the campaign.

3. Age Gate and User Modes

Errly is intended for users aged 13 and older. At first launch, we use a neutral age gate to confirm that you meet the minimum age requirement. You select your birth year; we do not upload the raw birth year. Instead, we store only a local age-classification flag.

• When it appears: immediately after the brand onboarding page, before any data collection, analytics, or advertising SDK initialization.
• How it works: a scroll-wheel selector for birth year. The wheel opens at a fixed starting year that is not derived from any information about you; you scroll to your actual birth year and confirm it. No wording suggests that you must be a certain age.
• Minimum age: users who identify themselves as under 13 are not permitted to use Errly and are blocked at the age gate.
• Regional dimension: we use your device locale / network IP to determine whether you are in the European Union. EU users aged 13–16 enter semi-restricted mode; users aged 13 or older outside the EU, or 16 or older in the EU, use the normal mode.
• Second confirmation: after you select a year, we ask you to confirm it (e.g., “Please confirm your birth year: 2011?”). If you enter it incorrectly, you must uninstall and reinstall the app to change the classification. Your local data will be lost on uninstall.
• No manual override: you cannot change the age classification in Settings. This prevents bypassing the gate.
• What is stored: only a local boolean flag (isEuSemiRestricted). The actual birth year is not uploaded to our servers.

3.1 EU Users Aged 13–16 (Semi-Restricted Mode)

If you are in the European Union and identified as 13–16, you enter semi-restricted mode:

• You may create an account and subscribe.
• Ads, if shown, are non-personalized and carry a TFUA (Tag for Under Age of Consent) signal to disable personalization and remarketing.
• Behavior analytics are disabled; only crash and stability data is collected.
• Core learning features (free daily limit, notebook, review) remain fully available.
• Account creation and subscription processing are based on contract necessity under GDPR Article 6(1)(b). They do not require the additional guardian-consent mechanism under GDPR Article 8.
• Install attribution (AppsFlyer) is disabled.

3.2 Users Aged 13+ (Normal Mode)

If you are 13 or older (or 16+ in the EU), you may use the full feature set, including account creation, subscriptions, and analytics/advertising subject to your consent.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

You may withdraw consent at any time:

• In regions where consent is required (the EEA, the UK, Switzerland, and regulated US states), the app's Settings offer Share usage analytics to turn analytics off, and Ad privacy options to change or withdraw your advertising consent.
• Elsewhere, where local law does not require a consent mechanism, these in-app controls are not shown. Advertising preferences are managed through your device settings — App Tracking Transparency on iOS, advertising ID controls on Android.
• Turning off Share usage analytics also stops install attribution by AppsFlyer. You can additionally limit advertising identifiers through App Tracking Transparency on iOS or your advertising ID settings on Android.

Withdrawing consent does not affect the core learning functionality.

5. Data Sharing and Third-Party Services

We share limited data with the following service providers solely to operate the Services:

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

6. Data Storage and Security

• Images: Original photos are stored locally on your device. Cloud Sync is off by default; if you sign in and turn it on, your problem photos are uploaded to Firebase Cloud Storage under your own account path and are readable only by you.
• Solution failure diagnostics: If an AI solution attempt fails, we store the problem photo and the recognized text from that attempt, together with technical error details (error message, timings, app version, operating system and network status), in Firebase Cloud Firestore and Cloud Storage so that we can find and fix the problem. These records are not used for any other purpose and are automatically deleted after 30 days. Reaching a usage limit (for example, the daily free limit) is not a failure and is not recorded this way.
• Answer accuracy checks: For some solution requests, a second AI model (currently Google Gemini) independently solves the same problem so that we can measure and improve answer accuracy. We store the recognized problem text, both answers and technical details in Firebase Cloud Firestore; these records are not used for any other purpose and are automatically deleted after 30 days. If a photo is rejected by an AI provider’s safety filter, we do not keep it in failure diagnostics.
• Feedback: Stored in Firebase Cloud Firestore, with screenshots in Firebase Cloud Storage, and used only to understand and follow up on your feedback. Screenshots are automatically deleted 180 days after you send them.
• OCR text and AI explanations: Stored locally in your device database, and — only if you turn on Cloud Sync — also in Cloud Firestore under your own account path.
• Semantic search index: If you use semantic search (a paid-tier feature), the text of your saved problems is sent to Google's embedding model to produce numeric vectors, which are stored under your own account path in Cloud Firestore. Vectors are derived from your problem text and are deleted together with your account (see Section 7.3).
• Encryption: Data in transit is protected with TLS 1.3. Cloud storage uses provider-at-rest encryption (e.g., Firebase/Firestore).
• Access controls: Our backend services use authentication and app-attestation checks to prevent unauthorized access.

7. Data Retention and Account Deletion

We retain your data according to the following schedule:

7.1 Inactive Account Lifecycle

Even if you do not manually delete your account, Errly automatically manages inactive accounts as follows:

• 90 days of inactivity: re-engagement reminder.
• 180 days of inactivity: “data will be archived” reminder with an option to retain.
• 365 days of inactivity: data is archived. You may restore it for 90 days by logging in.
• 730 days of inactivity: all data is permanently and irreversibly deleted.

7.2 How to Delete Your Account and Data

You may delete your Errly account and all associated data at any time. We process deletion requests within 72 hours.

7.3 What Data Is Deleted

When you delete your account, the following data is permanently removed:

• Your account profile and authentication identifiers (email, Apple/Google sign-in tokens).
• Your saved study data, including errors, notebooks, notes, mastery scores, review history, and error-cause tags.
• Problem photos and thumbnail images associated with your account.
• OCR text, AI explanations, and any other content you created in the app.
• Semantic search vectors derived from your problem text.
• Subscription linkage records stored on our servers (your purchase history with Apple/Google may still be retained by them).

7.4 What Data We Retain and For How Long

For legal, security, and operational reasons, a limited amount of data may be retained after account deletion:

8. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your data. See Section 7 for step-by-step instructions.
• Portability: Request export of your data in a machine-readable format (JSON).
• Restriction: Request restriction of processing.
• Objection: Object to processing based on legitimate interest or direct marketing.
• Withdraw consent: in regions where consent is required, turn analytics and advertising off in the app settings (see Section 4).

To exercise these rights, contact us at kaiven9195@gmail.com.

9. Children’s Privacy (COPPA)

Errly is not directed at children under 13 and does not permit children under 13 to use the Services. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete that information as soon as possible. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at kaiven9195@gmail.com.

10. California Privacy Rights (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

• Know what categories of personal information we collect and how we use it.
• Request deletion of your personal information.
• Opt out of the sale of personal information. Errly does not sell personal information.
• Request a copy of your data.

To exercise CCPA rights, contact us at kaiven9195@gmail.com.

11. International Data Transfers

Your data may be processed by service providers located outside your country, including in the United States. We rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or adequacy decisions for transfers of personal data from the European Union. When AI requests are handled by DeepSeek, or routed through OpenRouter to model providers in China, the problem content is processed in the People’s Republic of China. We send these providers only the problem content needed to generate the response, never your account identifiers.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by updating the “Last Updated” date and, where required, through an in-app notice. Continued use of the Services after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Advertising Content

All advertising served in the app is configured with a maximum content rating of PG and does not use child-directed cartoon imagery. Errly is not intended for users under 13, so the advertising SDK is not initialized for users blocked by the age gate. For EU users aged 13–16, only non-personalized ads are served with a TFUA flag. To measure our own advertising campaigns we use AppsFlyer and, on iOS, Apple's SKAdNetwork; see Sections 1.2 and 5 for details.

13. Contact Us

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

Email: kaiven9195@gmail.com