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Privacy Policy

Your communication profile is stored on your device. You control the files you import, export, and share.

Last updated: October 29, 2026

What ETalken does

ETalken is a communication app for personal gestures, AAC boards, phrases, and audio. Current releases for Android (1.1.18 and later) and iOS do not include ETalken account sign-in or cloud backup. You do not need an ETalken account to use them.

Information stored on the device

Your profile can include gesture samples, phrases, board buttons, folders, symbols, selected photos, audio recordings, and app and keyboard settings. Gesture recognition is performed on the device. The app also stores trial dates and a cached purchase status locally.

These releases do not upload your communication profile to an ETalken backup server. ETalken does not use that locally stored content to train server-side machine learning systems.

Import, export, and sharing

Local file import, export, and sharing remain available. An exported file may contain your gestures, boards, phrases, settings, photos, and recordings. Export files are not password-protected by ETalken, so keep them somewhere you trust and share them only with intended recipients.

If you choose a storage provider or another app as the destination, that service handles the file under its own privacy practices. Files you export or share are separate from the app's local storage.

If you bring a board from another AAC app into ETalken, the screenshots you choose are read on your device to find the words and buttons. They are never uploaded. If you choose to keep a button's own picture from a screenshot, such as a family photo, that small picture is stored in your profile on the device.

Your operating system may also include app data in device backups or device-to-device transfers, depending on your settings. Android backup is enabled in the app. These are device services, not ETalken's removed cloud backup feature. You can manage them in your device settings. See Android's backup information.

Keyboard and speech

If you enable the ETalken keyboard, your profile can be shared locally with the keyboard so you can insert phrases into other apps. Keyboard gesture processing takes place on the device. Once you send text to another app, that app's privacy practices apply.

ETalken uses your device's speech services to speak phrases. A selected speech engine or voice may use an online service under its provider's settings and privacy policy. ETalken does not require a server to recognize your drawn gestures.

When the app or website goes online

Local profile storage does not mean that every part of ETalken is offline:

  • App configuration: the app uses Firebase Remote Config for settings such as trial duration, which plans are offered, reminders, and whether content updates are used. Firebase uses installation identifiers to return configuration. This does not upload your communication profile. See Firebase privacy information.
  • Anonymous summary: the app (2.5.0 and later, on iOS and Android) sends a small anonymous summary every few days, described below.
  • Keeping the free trial fair: the Android app (2.5.0 and later) keeps one small record per phone so the free trial can't be started again, and reads the current time from this website, described below.
  • Pattern downloads: the app checks for and downloads gesture library updates. Hosting services receive normal request information, such as your IP address and the requested file; these requests do not contain your personal gesture samples or phrases.
  • Content updates: the app (2.5.0 and later, on iOS and Android) checks this website for fixes to its words, translations, lessons, and pictures, and downloads them. These requests carry the app's version and normal request information, such as your IP address and the requested file, to our website host. They never contain what you say, type, or make in the app.
  • Purchases and restores: your app store processes payment. ETalken uses purchase and entitlement information to enable Premium and cache access on the device. ETalken does not receive your payment-card details.
  • Website and support: visiting this site or opening external links sends normal connection information to the destination service. If you email us, we receive your email address and the information you send so we can respond. Please do not send a full communication profile unless it is needed for your request.
  • Suggestions and feedback: if you send a message with our feedback form, it is stored as described below.

ETalken does not sell your personal data. The current Android and iOS apps have no advertising SDK or advertising-ID integration. Service providers handle the information needed for the services described above under their own privacy practices.

Anonymous summary

To learn what helps and what gets in the way, the app (2.5.0 and later, on iOS and Android) sends a small anonymous summary every few days, every four days by default. It never stops the app from working: if it can't be sent, nothing happens, and the app keeps working fully offline.

The summary contains counts and settings only, such as:

  • the app version, the iOS or Android version, and whether it's a phone or a tablet;
  • the app and voice language, and the country from your phone's region setting;
  • whether you are on the trial, a monthly or yearly plan, or Lifetime;
  • which built-in settings and starter packs are in use;
  • how many words were said by gesture, board, or keyboard, and how many lessons were finished;
  • which kinds of gestures were used, and how often a gesture wasn't recognized.

It never contains what you say or type, your own words, sentences, or button names, people's names, photos or recordings, or any ID for you or your device. Each summary stands alone and can't be linked to you or to earlier summaries.

Summaries are stored in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore, in the United States). Firebase App Check confirms that a summary comes from the real ETalken app. The installation identifier that Remote Config uses is not stored with the summary.

Keeping the free trial fair on Android

The free trial on Android needs no card, so the Android app (2.5.0 and later) makes sure each phone gets it once, even after the app's data is cleared or the app is reinstalled:

  • One record per phone in Firebase: a scrambled code made from the ID Android gives ETalken on that phone, and the date the trial began, set by Firebase's own clock. The code is made one way and can't be turned back into the phone's ID. The record holds no name, email address, or anything you say or make in the app, and it is never stored with or linked to the anonymous summary. The app can only read its own record and create it once; it can't list, change, or delete records.
  • Your Google backup: the trial start date is also kept with Google's Block Store on the phone and, where the phone supports it, in your Google account's end-to-end encrypted backup, so it survives a reinstall or a new phone.
  • The date: so that turning the phone's clock back doesn't reopen an ended trial, the app reads the current time from this website's reply, at most every few hours. Nothing is sent beyond normal request information.

Trial records are stored in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore, in the United States).

Suggestions and feedback

The feedback form on this website, which the app's Settings also open, sends only what you choose to send:

  • your message, and whether it's a suggestion, a problem, or something you love;
  • your email address, only if you add it so we can reply;
  • the language the page was shown in, and when the message was sent;
  • when the form is opened from the app, the app's version and whether it's a phone or a tablet.

It never includes your boards, words, gestures, recordings, or anything else from the app. Please leave out private details, such as a child's full name or health information.

Messages are stored in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore, in the United States), apart from the anonymous summaries and never linked to them. Sending one reaches Google's servers with normal connection information, such as your IP address, which is not stored with your message. Only we can read messages, and we use them to improve ETalken and to reply when you ask us to. We delete them when they are no longer needed, or sooner if you ask at support@etalken.com.

To keep spam out, the form remembers in your browser when you last sent a message, and our database counts how many messages arrive each day, without recording who sent them. A message you haven't sent yet is kept only in that browser tab, so it isn't lost if the page reloads.

Sharing more, only if you choose

In the iOS app, under Settings › Privacy, or when Progress asks, you can choose to share a little more to help make ETalken better: the shapes of gestures that weren't recognized (as rough points, never words), where lessons get hard, which screens are used, the time of day and session length in rough bands, the accessibility settings in use, and anything that ran slowly.

It stays off unless you turn it on. You can turn it off at any time in Settings › Privacy, and turning it off deletes what was kept on your device.

ETalken App Clip

On iPhone, ETalken's App Clip opens from a link, a code, or a tag without installing the app: you can try three gestures, or use a board that speaks for someone who can't talk right now. The App Clip collects nothing: it doesn't send a summary, doesn't use Firebase, and speaks with your device's own voice. What you tap or type stays on your phone. If you install ETalken later, the few gestures you learned in the App Clip are passed to the app on your device. iOS removes an App Clip and its data when it hasn't been used for a while.

Your controls and deletion

You can remove saved items in the app, turn off sharing more in Settings › Privacy, disable the keyboard in device settings, and manage speech and device-backup settings. On Android, clearing ETalken's app storage removes its local app data, except the trial start date kept so the free trial isn't repeated (see above). Exported files, copies on other devices, operating-system backups, and app-store transaction records are managed separately.

Removing the cloud feature does not automatically delete information previously uploaded from a release that supported it. If your installed release still offers cloud backup, using it sends your sign-in email and the profile and media you choose to back up to that service. To request deletion of an existing account or uploaded backups, see data deletion and older accounts.

Children and families

ETalken may be used with support from a parent, guardian, caregiver, or teacher. Adults should help children manage personal phrases and media, file sharing, device services, and purchases. Contact us if you need help removing information sent to us about a child.

Contact

For privacy questions, contact support@etalken.com.