German Mate – Privacy Policy

Last updated: 16 October 2026

This policy explains what personal data the German Mate app and its server ("German Mate", "we") process, why, for how long, and what rights you have. It applies to the iOS app German Mate and to its test version German Mate QA.

1. Who is responsible

Mansour Alhaddad
Remal St, Gaza 00972, Palestine
Email: support@mansouralhaddad.com

2. Your account

When you first open the app, it creates an account without a name for you on our server (a "guest account"), so your level and progress can be saved. The account has a random ID; the app keeps its login key securely in your iPhone's keychain.

If you sign in with Apple or Google, we link your account to it and receive:

an ID from Apple or Google that identifies you in German Mate,
your email address: with Apple, this can be a private relay address (…@privaterelay.appleid.com) if you choose "Hide My Email",
your name: Apple shares it only the first time you sign in; Google with every sign-in.

Your name and email are not shown to other learners. We use them to identify your account, to contact you about it, and in moderation (see section 7).

3. What you tell us

Date of birth (asked when you sign in with Apple or Google): to make sure you are 18 or older. German Mate is for adults only.
Gender (female, male, or "prefer not to say"; also asked when you sign in): used when we choose a partner for you in speaking rooms. It is never shown to other learners.
Leaderboard name: shown to other learners on the weekly leaderboard and in speaking rooms. Use a first name or a nickname. Names are checked by a filter and can be reported.
App language, learning goal, daily goal and reminder settings.

4. Your learning

Placement test: the questions you were asked, your answers, the result and when you took it. The test is graded on our server so results can be trusted in speaking rooms.
Study activity: which words you studied or practised and when. Our server uses it to calculate your XP (points) and your place on the weekly leaderboard.
Backup of your cards: the state of each card (when it is due again), so you get your progress back on a new iPhone after signing in.
Course updates: the app downloads new or corrected words from our server.

Listening and speaking practice happen on your iPhone: German audio is created by the iPhone's built-in voice, and speech recognition is done by Apple (on the device where supported, otherwise by Apple's servers, see https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/). We never receive your practice recordings.

5. Speaking rooms

Speaking rooms are live voice calls with other learners (1:1 calls and group rooms). They are available from level A2, for adults with a signed-in account.

Your voice is transmitted live and is never recorded or stored by us. The calls are carried by LiveKit (LiveKit, Inc., USA), which processes the audio only to deliver it during the call.
We store who was in which call or room, when, at which level and for how long, the role in a group room (host, speaker, listener) and host actions (for example "muted" or "removed").
Ratings: after a call you can rate your partner privately (thumbs up or down). The rating is never shown to them.
Reports and blocks: if you report someone, we store the reason, your optional note and which call or room it was about. A report also blocks that person, so you are not matched again. Reports from several people can take someone out of speaking rooms.
Room-hour reminders: if you turn them on, we store your device's push token and send you a notification through Apple's push service when a room hour starts.

Other learners see your leaderboard name, your level and your public tag (for example #3F9A12BC), and hear what you say in the call. Please don't share personal details in calls.

6. Advertising (Google AdMob)

The free version shows ads from Google AdMob (Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland), including optional "rewarded" ads that unlock a placement test retake sooner.

To show and measure ads, Google may process device information (model, operating system, language), your IP address and the approximate location derived from it, ad interactions, and the advertising identifier (IDFA): only if you allow tracking in the iOS prompt. When you finish a rewarded ad, Google confirms it to our server with your account ID, so the reward can't be faked.

Consent (EEA, UK, Switzerland): before ads are shown, the app asks for your consent with Google's consent form. You can change your choice at any time in Settings → Privacy choices. Google's privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

7. Safety and moderation

To keep German Mate safe (App Store rule 1.2 for apps with user content), our moderators can see, in an admin tool protected by password and a second factor, the information above about an account, including name, email and reports. Every action they take (for example hiding a name, suspending an account or changing a level) is logged.

8. Server logs and security

Our server keeps short technical logs (for example the time, the requested address and errors, which may include your IP address) to run and protect the service. They are rotated automatically and deleted after a short time.

9. Where your data is stored, and who receives it

Our server is hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany) in data centres in the European Union (Germany or Finland).
LiveKit (USA) for live audio in speaking rooms; Apple for Sign in with Apple, push notifications and speech recognition; Google for Sign in with Google and ads.
We don't sell your data, and we don't use analytics or tracking tools other than the ad service described above.

Some of these providers process data outside the EEA, in particular in the USA. They rely on the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and/or standard contractual clauses. If you use the app in Saudi Arabia, data is transferred outside the Kingdom under the same safeguards, in line with the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL).

Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): your account, learning progress, placement test, XP, leaderboard, speaking rooms and backups: the service you use.
Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): safety and moderation (reports, blocks, suspensions, the age check), preventing abuse (for example of retakes or rewards), security logs, and non-personalised ads to finance the free app.
Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): personalised ads and the advertising identifier, push notifications, microphone and speech recognition permissions. You can withdraw consent at any time.

11. How long we keep data

Your account and everything linked to it are kept until you delete the account.
Delete your account in the app: Settings → Account → Delete account. This immediately deletes your account, profile, learning data, room history, ratings, reports, blocks and push tokens from our server, and disconnects Sign in with Apple. Copies in our nightly backups are deleted within 14 days.
After a deletion, our admin log keeps only the account's public tag and the time, so we can prove that it was deleted.
On your iPhone you can also reset your progress in Settings → Reset progress, or delete the app.

12. Your rights

Under the GDPR (and similar laws such as the Saudi PDPL), you have the right to access your data, to correct it, to have it deleted, to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future. Write to support@mansouralhaddad.com; we answer within one month. You can also complain to a data protection authority, for example in the country where you live.

13. Age

German Mate is for adults: you must be 18 or older. We ask for your date of birth when you sign in with Apple or Google, and don't let younger people sign up or use speaking rooms. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we delete it.

14. Changes

We update this policy when German Mate changes. The current version is always at this address; if a change affects you significantly, we tell you in the app.