← Turtle Talk

Privacy Policy

Beta version · last updated 1 November 2026

Who we are

Turtle Talk is run by Max Auracher, a private individual, who is the data controller. Before the app launches in the App Store or Google Play, a company (Spanish SL) will take over this role and this policy will be updated. Contact: [support email to be added].

What we collect

• Profile: first name, native and learning language, goal. No email, phone or photo is needed. You sign in as an anonymous guest.
• Voice clips you record in a chat, plus your partner's feedback taps and notes.
• Starter Shell recordings (optional): if you record the 5 beginner phrases and tick “share”, learners may hear them after we check them. Your name is not shown. Without the tick they stay private to you. Deleting your account deletes them.
• Ratings, reports, blocks and feedback messages you submit (feedback includes your browser type and screen width so we can reproduce bugs).
• Usage events (for example "clip sent" and timings) to fix bugs and improve the app.

Why (legal basis)

To provide the service you asked for (contract), and to keep it safe and working (legitimate interest). Transcription is optional and only happens if you switch it on (consent).

AI transcription and feedback

After a chat ends (never during it), the voice clips from that chat are transcribed word for word, keeping mistakes and fillers, so you can get feedback and tips. This covers both people's clips, including the rabbit's spoken corrections.

• Audio → Speechmatics Ltd (UK; EU processing endpoint). Speechmatics converts the audio to text and deletes the job data according to its retention settings. The UK has an EU adequacy decision.
• Text only → Groq, Inc. (USA). Only the written transcript, never the audio, is sent to Groq to generate the feedback and tips. Transfers to the USA rely on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

We are choosing settings and terms so that neither provider uses your data to train its models. We will confirm this here before real transcription is switched on. Until then, feedback in the app is a demo sample and no audio is sent to either provider. Transcripts and feedback are shown only to the person who asked for them and are kept on their phone. While a review is being prepared, they are held temporarily in our hosting provider's (Cloudflare) cache for up to 1 hour, then deleted automatically. We don't store them in our database. Shanghainese is not transcribed automatically yet: you can type what was said yourself, or skip.

Who can see it

Your voice clips are visible only to the partner in that chat. Your first name and languages are visible to other signed-in users. Data is stored by Supabase in the EU (Frankfurt). If you switch on live transcription in Chrome, your browser sends that audio to Google's speech service. When AI feedback is added, clips will be sent to an AI provider for processing. We'll update this policy and ask you first.

How long

Until you delete your account. During the beta we may delete old chats sooner.

Your rights

You can delete everything at any time in the app: Profile → Settings → Delete my account & data. This removes your profile, clips, chats, ratings and logs. You can also ask us for a copy, a correction or deletion via [support email to be added], and you can complain to the Spanish data authority (AEPD, aepd.es).

Age

Turtle Talk is only for people aged 18 and over.