Privacy Policy
Habbly ("we", "us", "our") provides a language-learning app used by students in class. This policy explains what data we handle, why, and the choices teachers and parents have. We’ve written it in plain English on purpose.
Habbly is operated by Habbly Ltd (company number 16242486), United Kingdom.
Questions or requests: hello@habbly.org
Our approach: collect as little as possible
Habbly is designed to be privacy-light. Students do not create a normal account and do not enter any personal details themselves. A student signs in with only a class code and a 4-digit PIN, nothing else.
Each pupil is shown a display name, but this is set by the teacher in their dashboard and linked to the PIN. The teacher chooses what to use, a first name, initials, or a username, so whether a pupil is identifiable at all is the teacher’s decision, not information the app collects from the child. There is no email, no surname, no date of birth, and no home address.
What we collect
Sign-in information
- Class code and PIN, entered by the student to log in
- First name, initials or username, entered by the teacher in the dashboard and linked to the PIN, so the teacher can recognise their pupils
- A device identifier, used to keep the student signed in on their device
Learning activity
- Answers to homework questions, scores, and time spent per question, this is what produces the progress reports teachers see in their dashboard
Spoken and written answers (for specific exercise types)
- For pronunciation exercises, the microphone records the student’s spoken answer (see "Voice and microphone" below)
- For writing exercises, the student’s typed answer is sent for automated marking (see "Third parties" below)
What we deliberately do NOT collect
- Email addresses or surnames
- Dates of birth
- Location / GPS data
How we use this data
- To run the app and deliver homework
- To mark answers and give feedback
- To show teachers their class’s progress
- To keep the app working and secure
We do not sell personal data, and we do not use student data for advertising or to train our own models.
Legal basis and roles (UK GDPR)
The teacher creates the account and decides what homework to set and what display name to give each pupil, so the teacher determines how the app is used with their class. Habbly processes the limited data described above only to provide the Service. Because students sign in with only a class code and PIN, Habbly holds no directly identifying details about a child. If you have any questions, contact hello@habbly.org.
Third parties we share data with (sub-processors)
We use a small number of trusted services to make features work. We share the minimum needed and never more than required for the task.
These providers process data under their own terms; under our API agreements they do not use student answers to train their models. Where a provider operates outside the UK (e.g. in the United States), we rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses / the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.
Voice and microphone
Pronunciation exercises ask the student to speak. When they do, the microphone captures their voice and it is transcribed using Apple’s speech recognition. The resulting text may then be marked as described above. The microphone is only used during these exercises, never in the background.
Data retention
We keep student learning data for as long as the teacher’s account is active. We will delete it within 30 days of a request from the teacher or a parent. Teachers can ask us to delete a class’s data at any time.
Security
Data is transmitted over encrypted connections (HTTPS) and stored encrypted at rest. Sign-in tokens are held in the device’s secure store (iOS Keychain / Android Keystore), and students can optionally enable biometric unlock. We restrict internal access to student data.
Children’s privacy
Habbly is built for use by children in an educational setting. We follow the UK GDPR and the ICO’s Age Appropriate Design Code (the "Children’s Code"): we minimise data, avoid profiling, show no ads, and turn off any non-essential data collection by default.
Your rights and how to exercise them
Students, parents and teachers can ask us to access, correct or delete a student’s data. Because pupils sign in with only a class code and PIN, and the only link to a real child is the display name held by the teacher, please route requests through the teacher, who holds the class records needed to identify the right pupil. Contact hello@habbly.org and we will respond within one month.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle data, we’ll update this page and the "Last updated" date above.