Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 30, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains what the Zupzi Read app for iPhone and iPad (coming soon to the App Store as “Zupzi: Learn to Read & Phonics”) keeps, where it keeps it, what can leave your device, and how you delete it. It is written for the parent or legal guardian who sets up the app.

Who we are

Zupzi Read is made by Zupzi, the same team behind the other Zupzi apps (“Zupzi”, “we”, “us”). Zupzi is operated in the United States by Leonardo Mennela de Jesus Franco, an individual developer, who is responsible for your information under this policy. You can reach a person at support@zupzi.io.

The short version

• Everything stays with you. Zupzi Read has no account, no sign-in and no server. The readers you add, their progress and the reading diary are saved in the app on your iPhone or iPad (and in your device backups, if you make them). We never receive them.
• The microphone stays off until a grown-up turns listening on. Even then, your child’s voice is heard on the device and is never saved or sent anywhere. What the app keeps is the text of what it heard.
• Nothing reaches us unless you share it. The app sends nothing by itself: its data leaves the device only when a grown-up taps Share the diary and chooses where to send it, or in your own device backups (iCloud or a computer), if you make them.
• No ads, no tracking, nothing sold. The app has no advertising, no analytics or tracking software, no advertising identifiers and nothing for sale. We never sell or rent personal information.

What Zupzi Read keeps on your device, and why

Zupzi Read saves everything in its own storage on your iPhone or iPad. Like every app, it runs in its own space, which other apps can’t read. Nothing described here is copied to a Zupzi server: Zupzi Read doesn’t have one.

The readers you add

So each child can tap their own picture on Who’s reading? and start. For each reader:

• a first name or nickname (the app says “A first name or a nickname is enough.”);
• a picture from the app’s own gallery. The app never asks for a photo;
• the age (3 to 8), only if you choose one. It shapes the lessons, and under 6 (or with no age set) listening only encourages;
• the date the reader was added, and where they are in the lessons.

Each reader’s progress

So the app can choose each day’s lesson, bring sounds back for review, and show you how your child is doing in Grown-ups. For each reader:

• the letter sounds and words practiced and mastered, and when each one comes back for review;
• the lessons and books finished, the days with a lesson, the quick checks inside the lessons, and where a lesson stopped, so it can continue;
• the results of the reading game, the app’s decisions about pace (shown in Why the app moved), the notes for you, and your ratings after a lesson you taught together;
• your settings for that reader: Lessons per day and Left-handed;
• your answer to the optional question “Has anyone in (your child)’s close family had a hard time learning to read?”, only if you answered it. The app asks it only after you allow listening, and you can skip it;
• small notes the app needs to keep its place, such as the day of the first lesson and which tips for grown-ups you have already seen.

The reading diary

The app writes a diary of every session on the device (in the app’s words: “Every session is written to a diary on this device. It never leaves the device unless you share it.”; like all app data, it is also included in your device backups, if you make them). It is there so that, if you choose, you can share it with someone who helps, such as us when something goes wrong. Inside the app, it is used only to count the sessions and to show you the summary at the end of a Reading check. The diary records:

• the app version, the device’s model code and iOS version, and whether the device was online or offline (the app only checks; it doesn’t connect);
• the screens of the setup for a new reader, with your answers about letters and words, the age, and whether listening is allowed;
• each step and answer in the lessons, books and reading game: what was asked, whether the answer was right, whether help was used, and how long it took;
• when listening is on, for each word or page read aloud: the text each listening engine heard, what the app said back, how noisy the room was, and whether headphones were connected;
• your taps in the sessions with a grown-up, such as whether the app heard right;
• the app’s own notes: its decisions about pace, the notes for you, technical notes (such as a voice clip missing from the app), and an estimate of whether extra help with reading might be useful, worked out from the lessons, the reading game and, if you answered it, the family question. The app does not show this estimate on any screen; it is only in the diary.

The diary does not include your child’s name or picture: each reader’s sessions are filed under a code the app creates. The sample lesson on the Welcome! screen is written to the diary too, without a reader. The diary has no time limit: it stays until you delete the app.

Settings for the whole device

• whether a grown-up allowed listening, and when. It is one setting for every reader on the device;
• which listening engine decides what the reader hears (under Listening, Details; all engines together, unless you choose one);
• technical flags the app uses to switch off a part that froze, so the lesson can go on.

The microphone and listening

• Off until a grown-up says yes. The microphone stays off until a grown-up turns on Allow listening in lessons (in Grown-ups, under Listening) or taps Allow listening while adding a reader. It is one setting for the whole device: it covers every reader on it. The first time the app listens, iOS also asks for permission to use the microphone. Without listening, your child taps a word to hear it, and a grown-up can check the reading. The sample lesson never uses the microphone.
• Only while your child reads aloud. The microphone turns on when your child taps Read it! (or Try again), and it stops by itself when they stop talking, or after a few seconds. In a lesson, the first time your child taps Read it!, the app first listens to the room for one second to measure the noise.
• Heard on the device, never saved. The sound is kept in the device’s memory only while the app works out what was said, and then it is discarded. It is never saved to a file and never sent anywhere: not to us, not to anyone.
• Four listening engines, all on the device. Two come inside the app: the Whisper and Parakeet speech recognition models, run by the open-source libraries WhisperKit and FluidAudio, which Zupzi Read sets up to use only the models inside the app. The other two are Apple’s speech recognition, built into iOS; Apple says this transcription happens entirely on the device. Apple’s engines need Apple’s English speech model, the English voice pack (see the next section).
• What is kept is only the text each engine heard (for example, “sat”), in the diary described above.
• To stop listening, turn off Allow listening in lessons. The app goes back to tap-to-read.

What can leave your device

Only what a grown-up chooses:

• Share the diary. In Grown-ups, under Reading diary, Share the diary packs the whole diary into one file, zupzi-read-diary.zip, and opens the iOS share sheet, where you choose where it goes (for example AirDrop, Files or Mail). The file holds the diary of every reader on the device, including readers you removed and the sample lesson. It goes only where you send it. The app keeps its last copy of the file in its temporary storage on the device, until iOS clears it or you share again. If you send the file to us, we use it only to help you and to fix problems, and we keep it only as long as needed for that.
• The English voice pack. When a grown-up taps Get the English voice pack (in Grown-ups, under Listening), iOS downloads Apple’s English speech model from Apple’s servers, keeps it, updates it and shares it with other apps. Zupzi Read only tells iOS which language it needs (U.S. English); nothing about your child is part of the request. The download is Apple’s service, under Apple’s privacy policy.

Nothing about your child. Zupzi Read has no server of its own, so it never sends anything to us.

What Zupzi Read does not do

• No account, no sign-in and no server. We have no database of families or children.
• No advertising, no analytics or tracking software, and no advertising identifier.
• Nothing for sale in the app.
• No camera, no photos, no location, no contacts and no notifications.
• No chat, and no way for your child to reach other people through the app.
• No voices are made while the app runs. The voices you hear (the teacher, the narrator and the animal friends) are clips made before release with voice-generation software and shipped inside the app. Your child’s voice is never used to make them.
• We never sell or rent personal information.

Children’s privacy

Zupzi Read is made for families with children ages 3 to 8, who are under 13. In the United States, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) sets rules for personal information that websites and online services collect from children under 13. Here is what Zupzi Read does:

• Nothing about your child reaches us through the app. Zupzi Read has no account and no server, and it doesn’t send your child’s name, age, voice, answers or progress to us or to anyone else. If you choose to share the diary with us, we receive what is in it, and we use it only to help you.
• A grown-up sets it up. Adding a reader, opening Grown-ups, leaving a child’s home and starting a session together all ask for Face ID, Touch ID or the device passcode (on a device with no passcode, iOS has nothing to check, and they open without asking). A first name or nickname is enough, and the picture comes from the app’s gallery. Who’s reading? has no lock, so a child can start on their own by tapping their picture.
• The microphone needs a grown-up’s yes, and your child’s voice is never saved.
• No ads and no chat. Children can’t message anyone or see anyone else through Zupzi Read.
• You stay in charge. In Grown-ups you can see each reader, change their name, picture or age with Edit, turn listening off and remove a reader. To delete everything, delete the app (see below). If you shared a diary with us and want it deleted, write to us.

How long things are kept, and how to delete them

Removing a reader

In Grown-ups, tap the reader, then Edit, Remove this reader and Remove. The reader leaves the list on this device. Their progress file and their diary stay on the device (the app says “The diary files stay.”), and their diary is still part of Share the diary.

Deleting everything

To delete everything Zupzi Read saved on a device, delete the app from that device: touch and hold the app, tap Remove App, then Delete App, and confirm. Deleting an app removes the app and its data from the device (offloading it, in Settings, keeps the data). If you back up the device to iCloud or to a computer, a backup made earlier may still hold a copy of the app’s data until that backup is replaced or deleted. We can’t delete what is on your device for you: we don’t have access to it, or a copy of it.

Who processes data for us

Zupzi Read itself doesn’t send data to any company. These companies are involved only when you visit this website or write to us:

Apple is not our processor, but a few things are handled by iOS when you use them, under Apple’s own privacy policy: the English voice pack, downloaded from Apple’s servers; the share sheet; and the Face ID, Touch ID or passcode check, which happens on the device. The app never sees your face data, fingerprint or passcode: iOS only tells it whether the check passed. We may also disclose information when the law requires it.

Security

Zupzi Read keeps its files in its own storage on the device, which other apps can’t read, and when the device has a passcode, iOS also uses it to protect the app’s files. The app adds no encryption of its own. Because the app has no server, none of this information sits on one. A passcode on the device also locks the Grown-ups area. No system is perfect; if we ever learn of a problem that affects you, we will say so on this website and in the notes of the next app update.

International users

Zupzi is operated in the United States. Zupzi Read keeps its data on your device, so nothing is transferred to us unless you share it. If you write to us or share a diary with us from another country, it is handled in the United States. Residents of Brazil have the rights of the LGPD (access, correction, portability, deletion, and information about sharing) and may contact the ANPD. Residents of the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom have the equivalent GDPR rights and may contact their supervisory authority. To use any of these rights, write to support@zupzi.io.

This website

This website, read.zupzi.io, describes the app. It has no sign-in, no advertising and no analytics or tracking cookies. Its fonts are served from this website itself. Our hosting provider keeps standard technical logs to run and protect the site.

Changes to this policy

Zupzi Read has no account and no e-mail list, so we can’t write to you. If this policy changes in a way that matters to you, we will post the new version here, with a new date, before the change takes effect, and mention it in the notes of the app update that brings the change. The date at the top is always the current version.

Contact

Write to support@zupzi.io. A person reads it. We answer privacy requests within 30 days, and usually much sooner.