Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 8, 2026
In short
- Lingoly stores what it needs to teach you a language: your email, your name, the language you learn, the pages you read and the words you practise.
- The text of a page you read is sent to an AI service to translate and explain it. Your name and email are never sent with it.
- Your data is stored on our own server in the European Union.
- You can see, change or delete your data at any time. Write to support@lingoly.org.
What we don't do
- No advertising, no ad networks.
- No analytics, no tracking, no fingerprinting. Not on this website, not in the app, not in the extension.
- No cookies. When you log in, we store your data in the local storage, so you stay logged in.
- We never sell your data, and we never share it with others for their own purposes.
Who we are
Lingoly.org is operated by Heiko Weible, Berlin, Germany. We are the "data controller" for your data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Contact: support@lingoly.org. Our postal address is in the Imprint.
What we store and why
We only store data that Lingoly needs to work. We never ask for more than that.
| Data | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Email address | To log you in. We send an 8-digit code to it; there is no password. We also use it to answer you when you write to us. |
| Language | To translate pages into the language you want to learn. |
| Name | Your name is shown to other learners in the leaderboard. |
| Time zone | To end the weekly leaderboard on Sunday evening in your local time and to group you with learners in the same time zone. |
| Pages you read | The address, text or video transcript you open with Lingoly and its translation. |
| Words you learn | Words you click, the sentence it stood in, its explanation, and your results in the exercises. This is what the spaced repetition is built on. |
| Progress | Stars, streak, league, trophies, how far you have read and the number of exercises you did. |
| Usage | How many translations and explanations you requested each month and what they cost us, so that we can keep Lingoly affordable. |
The bookmarklet and the browser extension
The "Read with Lingoly" bookmark and the Lingoly browser extension do the same thing: when you click them, they read the page that is open in your browser and send its address, text and icon to lingoly.org to translate it. That is their single purpose.
- They only run when you click them, on that one page. They never see which other pages you visit.
- They are not logged in. No name, email or other data about you is sent with the page.
- The extension only asks for permission to access the current tab when you click its icon ("activeTab" and "scripting"). It needs nothing else.
- The data is used only to show you the page in Lingoly. It is not sold, not used for advertising and not passed on for any other purpose.
Services we use
Lingoly runs on our own server. A few things need other companies. These are all of them:
| Service | What it gets |
|---|---|
| OVH (France) | Hosts our server. All your data is stored there, in the European Union. |
| Amazon Web Services (Frankfurt, Germany) | Sends the login code to your email address. |
| OpenAI and OpenRouter (USA) | Translate the pages you read and explain the words you click. They receive the text of the page and the clicked word with its sentence, never your name, email or any other data about you. OpenRouter forwards the text to the AI model provider that answers it. These services may keep the text for a short time to detect abuse, according to their own policies. |
| Your browser | Reading a sentence aloud uses the speech synthesis built into your browser. Depending on your browser and system, its maker may process the text for that. |
OpenAI and OpenRouter are in the USA. We send them only the text to translate, under the standard contractual clauses of the European Commission, and no personal data of yours.
Server logs
Like every server, ours records requests with their IP address and time, to find errors and stop abuse. These logs are deleted after 30 days. Words you click and their answers are also logged without your name, to improve the explanations.
How long we keep your data
As long as you have an account. When you delete your account, your words, exercises, progress and bookmarks are deleted with it. Backups of the database are kept for a limited time and then overwritten.
Your rights
You can at any time:
- See the data we have about you and get a copy of it,
- Correct it (your name and language directly in the app),
- Delete your account and everything in it,
- Object to or restrict how we use it.
Write to support@lingoly.org from the email address of your account. We answer within a month, usually much faster. If you are in the EU and think we handle your data wrongly, you can complain to your local data protection authority.
For residents of California and other US states: we do not sell or share your personal information, and we do not use it for targeted advertising. You have the right to know what we collect, to delete it, to correct it, and you will not be treated differently for using these rights. Use the email address above.
Legal basis
We process your data to provide Lingoly to you, which is the contract between us (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Server logs and the abuse protection of our service providers are based on our legitimate interest in a secure service (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Children
Lingoly is not meant for children under 16. If you learn that a child has created an account, tell us and we will delete it.
Changes
When we change this policy, we update the date at the top. For important changes we tell you in the app or by email.