Deutsch Kumpel

1. Overview

Welcome to Deutsch Kumpel (also referred to as German Buddy), operated by Liquid Monks, LLC ("we", "us", or "our"). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy across our web platform (deutschkumpel.com and its alias germanbuddy.com) and mobile applications (iOS and Android).

2. Information We Collect

• Account Information: If you choose to authenticate via Google, Apple ID, Email, or Social Auth, we collect your email address and basic profile identifier solely for account recovery and cloud progress synchronization.
• Flashcards & Learning Progress: Your SRS spaced repetition intervals, mastery ratings, study streaks, and custom decks are stored locally in your browser/device and synced to our secure Firebase Cloud Firestore database when logged in.
• Voice and Audio Data: When utilizing pronunciation evaluation or dictation challenges ("Diktat"), your microphone audio is analyzed locally or streamed securely to real-time speech recognition services. Audio recordings are not permanently stored, sold, or used to train third-party machine learning models.
• Bring Your Own Key (BYOK): If you provide your own personal Google Gemini or OpenAI API key, it is encrypted and stored strictly within your browser's local storage and is never uploaded to our servers.

3. Advertising & Cookies (Web Platform)

On our public web platform (deutschkumpel.com and germanbuddy.com), we may display non-intrusive advertisements to users on the free tier to offset server and artificial intelligence compute costs.

• Third-party vendors, including Google AdSense, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to our website or other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to our sites and/or other sites on the Internet.
• Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings or aboutads.info.
• Ad-Free Experience: Subscribing to Deutsch Kumpel Pro or Club VIP completely removes all advertising across the platform.
• Native Mobile Applications: No web-based AdSense tracking or banner advertisements are executed within our native iOS (Apple App Store) or Android (Google Play Store) applications.

4. Data Security & Storage

We implement industry-standard HTTPS encryption in transit and AES-256 encryption at rest through Google Cloud and Firebase infrastructure. We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties under any circumstances.

5. Data Deletion & Your Rights

You have the right to inspect, export, or delete all study data and account records associated with your account at any time. To request complete deletion of your account and synchronized decks, contact us at dev@liquidmonks.com or use the "Delete Account" button within the in-app Account Settings.

6. Children's Privacy

Deutsch Kumpel is not directed toward children under 13 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

7. Contact Information

If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact: