Chào

Privacy Policy

Chào: Speak Vietnamese

Last updated: November 7, 2026

Overview

Chào: Speak Vietnamese ("Chào" or "the App") is a Vietnamese course for iPhone, iPad and Android owned and operated by Sugoi Group LLC ("Sugoi Group," "we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains what the App collects, why, who processes it, and how long we keep it.

The short version: Chào keeps your learning progress on your phone and syncs it to our server, so you do not lose it and so leagues and friends work. If the App crashes, it sends a crash report so we can fix the bug. It also sends usage statistics to Google Analytics for Firebase, without your account identifier, so we can see how the App is used. We do not show ads, and we do not track you across other apps. Chào never stores or uploads your voice recordings.

Learning Progress

Chào stores your progress on your device: lessons finished, the words you know and their review schedule, XP, streak, gems, hearts, achievements, quests, stories read and the accent you chose. When you are online, the App syncs this progress to our server, so you can restore it on a new phone and so leagues work.

Your Account

  • Anonymous account: when you first open the App, we create an anonymous account with a random identifier, so your progress can sync. It contains no name or email address.
  • Sign-in (optional): if you sign in with email, Apple or Google, we store your email address and link it to your account, so you can sign in on another device. With email, we send you a 6-digit sign-in code.
  • Display name and friend code (optional): if you set a display name, other learners in your weekly league and your friends see your display name, your weekly XP and your streak. Your friends also see whether you practised today. They see nothing else.

Friends, Nudges and Invites

  • Friends: when you add a friend by code, we store the friendship so each of you can see the other on the friends leaderboard.
  • Nudges: when a friend nudges you, we store who sent it and when, so we can show it to you once. We delete nudges after 7 days.
  • Invites: when you use a friend's invite code, we store who invited you and when, to give each of you a free week of Premium.

Usage Events

The App records basic events, such as "lesson completed," "paywall shown" or "purchase," with your account identifier, so we can see which parts of the course work and improve them. We delete these events after 90 days. We do not use these events for advertising.

Usage Statistics (Google Analytics for Firebase)

The App also sends the same events, and which screens you open, to Google Analytics for Firebase, a Google service. Google adds the device model, the operating system and App versions, the language, an identifier for this installation, and an approximate location (country or city) that it works out from your IP address. We see this only as totals and charts, for example how many people finished a lesson this week. We do not send your account identifier, name, email or anything you typed or said, and we turned off advertising identifiers and ad personalization. Google keeps event-level data for up to 14 months. Signing out resets the installation identifier.

Speaking Exercises

Speaking exercises use the speech recognition built into your phone (Apple on iPhone and iPad, Google on Android) to turn what you say into text. Depending on your device and settings, your phone may send the audio to Apple or Google for this, under their privacy policies. Chào receives only the resulting text, uses it on your device to check your answer, and never stores or uploads your recordings. You can turn speaking exercises off in Settings, or skip one with "Can't speak now."

AI Practice

"Talk with locals" and "Explain my answer" use an AI model run by Anthropic. When you use them, the App sends the text of that conversation or exercise (what you typed or said, and the App's lines) through our server to Anthropic. We send no name, email address or other personal details with it.

  • We do not store the conversation. We only count how many AI replies you use each day, to apply the daily limit, and delete these counts after 30 days.
  • Anthropic processes the text on our behalf and does not use it to train its models. See Anthropic's Privacy Policy (opens in new tab).

Purchases

Subscriptions and the lifetime purchase are sold through the App Store or Google Play. We never see your payment details. Chào uses RevenueCat to check whether Premium is active. RevenueCat receives:

  • Your App account identifier
  • Transaction data from the App Store or Google Play, such as the product, the purchase date and the renewal status

RevenueCat sends us the status of your purchases so that Premium works on every device where you sign in. See RevenueCat's Privacy Policy (opens in new tab).

Home Screen Widget and Reminders

The widget shows your streak from data the App keeps on your device. Reminders (a daily reminder and a "streak at risk" warning in the evening) are local notifications scheduled on your device. Neither sends anything to a server. You can turn each reminder off in Settings.

Crash Reports

When the App crashes or hits an unexpected error, it sends a crash report to Firebase Crashlytics, a Google service, so we can find and fix the bug. A report contains the error and where in the App's code it happened, the device model, the operating system and App versions, an identifier for this installation and your anonymous account identifier, so we can match a report to a support request. It contains nothing you typed or said, and no name or email address. Crash reports are kept for 90 days.

Service Providers

These companies process data for us, only to provide the App:

We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone else, except when the law requires it.

What We Do Not Collect

  • We do not show ads or use advertising identifiers
  • We do not use tracking pixels or cookies
  • We do not track you across other apps or websites
  • We do not collect your precise location, contacts or photos
  • We do not store your voice recordings

Your Choices and Deleting Your Data

  • You can use the App without signing in and without a display name. Your progress then syncs only under the anonymous account.
  • To delete your account and all of its data from our server, go to Settings → Delete account in the App. This also removes your progress from your device. You can also email us from the address on your account, and we will delete it within 30 days.
  • Purchase records kept by Apple, Google and RevenueCat follow their own retention rules.

Children's Privacy

Chào is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when the App's data use changes. Any changes will be reflected on this page with an updated "Last updated" date.

Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or the App's privacy practices, you can reach us at:

hello@getchao.app