Privacy Policy

01 — Overview

Our commitment to your family's privacy

BrainyTalk is an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) app that helps children who are nonspeaking, minimally speaking, or otherwise benefit from AAC communicate using picture cards, custom vocabulary, and text-to-speech. This Privacy Policy explains what information the app handles, how it's used, and the steps we take to protect it.

BrainyTalk does not diagnose, treat, cure, or replace an individualized AAC assessment or a Speech-Language Pathologist. It is a communication tool, not a medical device or clinical service.

02 — Children's Privacy

COPPA compliance

BrainyTalk is designed for use by children, typically set up and supervised by a parent or caregiver through Parent Mode. We comply fully with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar privacy laws worldwide, including GDPR-K (EU) and CCPA (California).

• The app does not require an account, login, or any registration to use.
• No data of any kind ever leaves the device — there is no server for it to go to.
• A child's display name is entered by a caregiver during setup for on-screen personalization only, and never leaves the device.
• The app does not require diagnosis, medical history, or school records.

03 — Data We Collect

What's stored, and where

Everything BrainyTalk stores lives in a local database on the device itself. We — the developer — never receive any of it.

• Child profile: A display name/nickname, optional avatar photo, preferred language(s), grid size, and speech settings — entered by a caregiver during onboarding.
• Vocabulary and custom cards: Which built-in words are enabled or favorited, plus any custom cards a caregiver creates (label, spoken phrase, category, and an optional photo).
• Accessibility and app settings: High contrast, card size, reduce motion, appearance (light/dark/system), and which optional features (like the Quick Needs strip) are turned on.

None of this is collected by us in any meaningful sense — it simply stays in the app's local storage on your device, the same way a note-taking app stores your notes.

04 — Data We Do NOT Collect

What we never collect

• We do not collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, or any contact information.
• We do not collect location data, GPS coordinates, or IP addresses tied to individual users.
• We do not use advertising networks, tracking pixels, or behavioral advertising.
• We do not track usage, build usage histories, or generate any analytics — the app has no analytics of any kind.
• We do not collect biometric data of any kind.
• We do not share, sell, or transmit data to data brokers, marketing companies, or anyone else — there is no mechanism in the app that could do this.

05 — Photos & Custom Content

How photos are used

BrainyTalk lets a caregiver, from within Parent Mode, choose a photo from the device's photo library to use on a custom AAC card (for example, a photo of a family member, pet, or favorite toy) or as a child's profile avatar.

• Photos are chosen deliberately by a caregiver — the app never accesses the photo library on its own or without an explicit tap.
• A chosen photo is copied into the app's local, sandboxed storage. It is never uploaded, never transmitted over a network, and never seen by us.
• Deleting a custom card, or uninstalling the app, permanently removes that photo from the device.
• BrainyTalk does not access the camera directly, and does not request microphone access.

06 — Parent Mode

How caregiver settings are protected

Parent Mode — where vocabulary, custom cards, and settings are managed — is protected by a simple math-challenge verification (not a PIN to remember or lose), intended to keep a young child from wandering into settings, not as a security boundary against another adult.

• All settings and content managed in Parent Mode are stored locally on the device, the same as everything else in this policy.
• BrainyTalk does not include a usage-tracking or "progress dashboard" feature — that is a deliberate product decision, not an oversight.
• A caregiver can optionally export a backup file (profile, custom cards, settings) to share via the device's own share sheet — this only happens when a caregiver explicitly initiates it, and the file goes wherever the caregiver chooses to send it, not to us.

07 — Third-Party Services

Third-party services we use

BrainyTalk uses no third-party analytics, advertising, or data-collection SDKs of any kind. The only third party involved at all is:

• Apple App Store: Distribution platform. Apple's own privacy practices govern data collected during app download and installation — we do not receive any personally identifiable information from Apple about users.

Speech is generated entirely on-device using the operating system's built-in text-to-speech — no audio or text is sent to any speech service over the network.

08 — Data Security

How we protect data

Because BrainyTalk stores everything locally on your device, the security of that data is protected by your device's own security — device encryption, passcode/biometric locks, and Apple's iOS app sandboxing. The app never transmits data over a network because it has no server to transmit it to.

• All data lives inside the app's sandboxed local storage, inaccessible to other apps.
• We follow Apple's App Store security guidelines and platform best practices.

09 — Data Retention

How long data is kept

Since everything is stored locally on your device, you are in full control of retention.

• Data persists on the device for as long as the app is installed.
• Uninstalling the app permanently removes all locally stored data, including custom cards and photos.
• An exported backup file exists only where the caregiver chooses to save or send it — BrainyTalk itself does not retain a separate copy anywhere.

10 — Parental Rights

Your rights as a parent or guardian

Under COPPA and applicable privacy laws, parents and guardians have the right to review, delete, or refuse further collection of their child's information. In BrainyTalk's case, since nothing ever leaves your device, exercising these rights is as simple as using the app's own settings:

• Review or delete any profile, custom card, or setting directly within Parent Mode.
• Delete everything at once by uninstalling the app.

If you have questions about how anything in the app works, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

11 — Changes to This Policy

How we handle policy updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as the app evolves. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Any future feature that would change how data is handled (for example, an optional cloud sync) would require a material update to this policy, and to the app's own in-app disclosures, before shipping.

Continued use of the app after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. If you do not agree, please discontinue use and uninstall the app.