Privacy Policy

Last updated 4 September 2026 · Applies to the Fluento app and fluentoapp.com

This describes what Fluento stores, who can see it, what leaves your phone and what happens when you leave. It is specific on purpose — a policy that could describe any app tells you nothing about this one.

1. Who holds your data

Fluento is responsible for the data described here — the controller, in the language of the GDPR and of the UK Data Protection Act. This policy covers the app and the website at fluentoapp.com.

Reach us about anything in it at privacy@fluentoapp.com.

The app runs on Google Firebase — authentication, database, file storage, analytics and crash reporting. Google processes that data on our behalf.

2. What we collect

Because you gave it to us: your email address and password (or your Google account, if you sign in that way); your display name; the languages you speak and are learning and your level in each; your interests; and — optionally — a photo, a short bio, a country and an age.

Because you used the app: who you called and for how long, messages you sent, reviews you wrote, gifts you sent or received, who you added as a friend or blocked, minutes on the ranking board, whose profiles you opened, and whether you are currently online.

Automatically: basic analytics about which screens are used and which actions succeed or fail, and crash reports. Both are tied to your account so a problem can be traced to a real session.

We do not collect your contacts, your location beyond the country you choose from a list, or anything from other apps.

3. What other people can see

This matters more than the list above, so it is spelled out.

Anybody signed in can see: your display name, photo, the languages you are learning and your level, your interests, your country, your bio, your approval rating, your gift-token count, how many calls you have had and how long you have talked, whether you are online, and any reviews written about you.

Only the person concerned can see: your messages to them, your shared call history with them, and gifts between you.

Only you can see: your email address, your friends list, who you have blocked, how many people viewed your profile, and your own account settings.

Nobody but us can see: reports you file and app ratings you leave. Blocking is invisible to the person blocked, and where you have been looking is invisible to everybody including you.

4. Your voice during a call

Calls connect directly between the two devices where the network allows. Your audio does not pass through our servers, is not recorded, and is not stored. What we keep is the length of the call.

To set a call up, the two devices exchange connection details through our database. Those are network addresses, not content, and the next call between the same two people overwrites them.

5. Speech recognition — audio leaves your phone

When you hold the microphone button during a call to have what you say written out, that audio is sent to your phone's own dictation service — Google's on Android, Apple's on iPhone — and handled under their terms and privacy policies, exactly as it is when you use the microphone key on your keyboard.

It does not come to us and we do not store it. We use the platform's service rather than our own because the offline alternatives transcribed conversational speech too badly to be usable. If you would rather no audio left the device, do not use that button — the call itself does not go through it.

6. Translation stays on your phone

Translating a chat message happens on the device, using Google's ML Kit on Android or Apple's Translation framework on iPhone. The message text is not sent to us or to anybody else. The first translation into a language downloads a model, which is a file transfer, not your message.

7. Your photo

A profile photo is re-encoded on your device to a small square image before it is uploaded, and location data in the original is discarded in the process. It is stored as a single file that each new photo overwrites, and its address is copied onto your public profile.

Because that address is copied to several places, an old photo can briefly still appear somewhere after you change it. Removing your photo deletes the file itself.

8. Why we are allowed to hold it

To provide the service — your account, profile, calls, messages and everything the app is for. Without this data there is no app.

Because we have a legitimate interest — keeping people safe through reports and blocking, preventing abuse, and understanding which parts of the app work through analytics and crash reports.

Because you chose to — your photo, bio, age and country are all optional, and microphone and notification permissions are yours to grant or refuse.

Because the law requires it — where we must keep something to answer a legal obligation.

9. Who else sees it

Google (Firebase) stores and processes almost everything on our behalf, and provides sign-in, analytics and crash reporting.

Google or Apple receive audio you send through the dictation button, as described above.

Other users see what section 3 lists.

We do not sell your data, share it with advertisers, or hand it to anybody for their own purposes. We disclose data to authorities only where we are legally required to.

10. Where it is held

Firebase stores data on Google's servers, which may be outside your country. Google operates standard legal safeguards for those transfers. Talking to somebody abroad means your profile is shown on a device abroad, which is the point of the app.

11. How long we keep it

Your account and everything on it stays until you delete it. Presence disappears as soon as you close the app. A call's connection details are overwritten by the next call. Ranking entries stay in the day, week and month they belong to. Reports are kept as long as they are useful for keeping people safe.

12. Deleting your account — what goes and what stays

Settings → Delete account. It is immediate and cannot be undone.

Deleted: your login, your profile, your photo, your listings in every language lobby, your presence, and your side of every conversation — including the row you appear as in the other person's chat list.

Not deleted, and we will not pretend otherwise: the call history you share with another person, reviews you wrote about somebody else, your past leaderboard entries, and the record that somebody viewed a profile. Each of those belongs to somebody else as much as to you, so the app cannot remove them on your behalf.

Write to privacy@fluentoapp.com and we will clear those by hand.

13. Your rights

You can see and change most of your data in the app directly — Edit profile, Languages, Interests, Settings.

You also have the right to ask for a copy of your data, to have it corrected, to have it erased, to object to how we use it, to restrict it, and to have it sent to another service. Where we rely on your consent — your photo, your bio, your microphone — you can withdraw it at any time without affecting what we did before you did.

Write to privacy@fluentoapp.com from the address on the account and we will answer within 30 days. There is no charge for a reasonable request.

If you think we have handled your data badly, you can complain to your local data protection authority, and you do not have to come to us first.

14. Children

Fluento is not for anybody under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child is using the app, report the account in the app or write to privacy@fluentoapp.com, and we will remove it.

15. Keeping it safe

Traffic is encrypted in transit. Who may read and write each piece of data is enforced on the server, not by the app — your email address, your friends list and your blocks are unreadable to other users no matter what a modified app asks for.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we will tell you and the relevant authority as the law requires.

16. Changes, and how to reach us

This policy ships inside the app and changes when the app does. A change to what we collect or who sees it will be brought to your attention in the app, not quietly published here.

For anything in this policy — including a request to see, correct or erase your data — write to privacy@fluentoapp.com, or reach us at hello@fluentoapp.com about anything else.