英语指纹 · English Fingerprint

Privacy Policy / 隐私政策

Last updated: 13 October 2026 · 最后更新：2026年10月13日

1. Operator and privacy contact / 运营方与隐私联系

Operator: English Fingerprint Limited, New Zealand.

English Fingerprint Limited is responsible for personal information handled through 英语指纹. The Privacy Officer is the contact for access, correction, deletion, complaints and other privacy questions.

运营方为新西兰 English Fingerprint Limited。隐私相关的查阅、更正、删除、投诉或其他问题，请联系 Privacy Officer。

NZ company number: 9462874 · NZBN: 9429053998033

2. Who the service is for / 适用对象

英语指纹 is currently intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly offer cloud accounts to children.

英语指纹目前面向18岁及以上成年人，不主动向未成年人提供云端账户。

3. Information we collect / 我们收集的信息

Depending on how you use the service, we may collect or store:

account information such as name, email address, password hash, verification and account-status data;
learning settings, goals, language preferences and accessibility/display settings;
lesson progress, diagnostic answers, mastery estimates, review schedules, vocabulary status and mistake history;
writing, conversation text, transcripts, pronunciation attempts and assessment results you choose to submit;
support messages and transactional-email metadata;
technical and security information such as IP address, browser/device information, timestamps, request logs and error information;
first-party product analytics such as a random browser identifier for guest users, active days, feature use, diagnostic and lesson completion, recommendation follow-through, study-session duration, speech-duration totals, recurring-error profile size, and provider usage/cost units;
custom background images or other content you deliberately upload;
personal vocabulary memory aids, including optional images or audio you upload for your own learning;
community content you choose to publish, including vocabulary-memory text, images, votes, saves, reports and moderation status.

我们可能保存账户资料、学习设置、课程和诊断记录、词汇与错误记录、你提交的写作或对话内容、语音练习结果、客服通信以及必要的安全和技术日志。

4. Why we use information / 使用目的

We use personal information to provide and secure the service, keep your progress in sync, personalise learning, generate exercises and feedback, send account emails, respond to support requests, prevent abuse, troubleshoot problems, improve reliability, and comply with legal obligations.

我们使用个人信息来提供和保护服务、同步学习进度、个性化学习内容、生成练习和反馈、发送账户邮件、处理客服请求、防止滥用、排查故障及履行法律义务。

Product analytics: 英语指纹 uses first-party analytics stored in our own application database to understand activation, retention, learning activity, recommendation use, feature adoption, speech usage and operating cost. We do not currently install a third-party advertising or behavioural-analytics SDK such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel or PostHog. Analytics events are designed not to contain lesson answers, conversation text, transcripts or raw audio.

产品分析： 英语指纹使用存储在自身数据库中的第一方分析数据，用于了解激活率、留存率、学习活动、推荐练习使用情况、功能使用、语音时长和运营成本。分析事件不会有意记录课程答案、对话正文、转写文本或原始音频。

5. Service providers and learner data / 服务商与学习数据

We use specialist providers to operate 英语指纹. They receive only the information reasonably necessary for the relevant function.

Railway — application hosting, PostgreSQL database hosting, networking and operational logs. The current production deployment is in Railway's US West / California region, so account and learning data may be stored and processed in the United States.
Cloudflare — DNS, proxying, security and network delivery. Network identifiers and request metadata may be processed across Cloudflare's global network.
Resend (Plus Five Five, Inc.) — account verification, password-reset and service email. Email addresses, message content where necessary, and delivery metadata may be processed outside New Zealand. This domain is currently configured in Resend's Asia-Pacific region (ap-northeast-1 / Tokyo, Japan), and Resend or its service providers may also process data in the United States.
Stripe — secure checkout, payment-method storage, payment processing, fraud prevention, refunds and payment records if paid subscriptions are enabled. Stripe may receive your email address, billing/contact details, country, payment-method information and transaction metadata. Full card details are collected and handled by Stripe rather than stored in the English Fingerprint application database. Paid checkout is currently disabled while the billing integration is tested.
Alibaba Cloud Model Studio / Qwen — optional text tutoring and speech recognition when enabled. These paid features are currently off. If enabled under the planned configuration, relevant prompts, learner context, outputs and/or audio may be processed in Alibaba Cloud's Singapore region.
Microsoft Azure Speech — optional speech transcription and pronunciation assessment when enabled. These paid features are currently off. When enabled, audio and related speech results are processed in the Azure region configured for the service; our intended production region is Australia East unless we tell users otherwise.
Browser/platform speech providers — while the browser speech fallback is used, your browser or operating-system provider may process speech data. The provider and processing location depend on your device and browser and may include Google, Microsoft, Apple or another platform provider.

GitHub is used for source code and deployment workflows, not as the intended store for learner account data.

6. Artificial intelligence, transcripts and voice / 人工智能、转写与语音

Where an AI or speech feature is enabled, we send only the content reasonably needed to perform that request. This can include the learner's submitted text, the relevant exercise or target phrase, limited learner-profile context, or a speech recording. Do not include information you do not want processed by the relevant provider.

AI text: learner submissions, generated feedback and error/profile information may be saved in the English Fingerprint learning record where this is needed to provide history, personalisation, recurring-error analysis or later review. The external AI provider receives the request data needed to generate the result and may process it under the provider terms and retention settings applicable to our account.

Voice and speech: the current application does not intentionally save raw microphone recordings in the English Fingerprint application database after a server-side speech request has been processed. When an enabled server-side transcription or pronunciation feature is used, the recording is transmitted to the configured speech provider for processing. We may store the resulting transcript, pronunciation/assessment result, usage duration and learning/error information so the learner can receive feedback and so their learning profile can be updated. Provider-side handling or temporary retention of audio is governed by the provider configuration and terms described above. Browser/platform speech recognition may instead send audio directly to the browser or operating-system provider, outside our server.

AI outputs, transcriptions and pronunciation scores can be wrong. They are learning aids rather than official examination results or professional certification.

启用AI或语音功能时，我们只发送完成该请求合理所需的数据，例如学习者提交的文字、相关练习、有限的学习档案信息或语音录音。英语指纹目前不会在服务器完成语音请求后故意把原始麦克风录音长期保存在应用数据库中；但我们可能保存转写文本、发音评估结果、语音使用时长以及相关学习和错误记录，用于反馈、个性化学习和复习。第三方AI或语音服务商对请求数据或音频的处理和临时保留，受相应服务配置及条款约束。AI输出、转写和发音评分可能出错，仅用于学习辅助，并非官方考试成绩。

7. Vocabulary community and public sharing / 词汇社区与公开分享

If you use the vocabulary community, content you publish may be visible to other users. A normal post displays the account name as a credit. If you choose the Anonymous option, your name is hidden from other users, but English Fingerprint Limited keeps the account-to-post link so we can prevent abuse, respond to reports and administer the service.

Community text is subject to automated/basic content checks. New community images are held for moderation before becoming publicly visible. Users can vote, save and report posts, and repeated independent reports may automatically hide a post pending review. These measures reduce risk but cannot guarantee that every unsuitable item will be detected immediately.

When you use the social-sharing function, the content (including an attribution watermark where applicable) leaves 英语指纹 and may be processed by the social platform or app you choose. That platform's own privacy terms then apply.

Personal vocabulary images/audio that you do not publish to the community remain associated with your account and are not intended to be public.

使用词汇社区时，你主动发布的内容可能对其他用户可见。选择“匿名”只会向其他用户隐藏你的姓名；英语指纹仍会保留账户与帖子的关联，以便防止滥用、处理举报和进行审核。社区文字会经过基础内容检查，新上传的公开图片会先进入审核队列。使用社交分享后，内容会离开英语指纹，并受你所选择平台的隐私政策约束。

8. Overseas processing / 境外处理

英语指纹 is operated from New Zealand, but some providers process information offshore. Current or planned locations include the United States (including Railway and some service-provider operations), Japan (Resend's configured Asia-Pacific region), Singapore (planned Alibaba Cloud Model Studio), Australia (planned Azure Speech), and other countries used by Cloudflare or browser/platform speech providers.

Where New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020 requires safeguards for an overseas disclosure, we will take reasonable steps to use providers or contractual arrangements that provide comparable protection, or obtain informed authorisation where required. Some providers act as processors or agents on our behalf rather than receiving information for their own independent purposes.

Mainland China: where the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (PIPL) applies to our provision of services to people in mainland China, account and learning information may be transferred outside mainland China to the locations described above. Before a broader mainland-China public launch, English Fingerprint Limited will complete the applicable personal-information protection impact assessment and cross-border transfer mechanism, obtain separate consent where legally required, and complete any required in-China representative or filing arrangements. Availability may be restricted while those controls are being completed.

英语指纹在新西兰运营，但部分服务商会在境外处理信息。对于中国大陆用户，如《中华人民共和国个人信息保护法》适用，账户和学习信息可能按照本政策所述传输至中国大陆境外。正式扩大中国大陆公开运营前，我们将完成适用的个人信息保护影响评估、跨境传输机制、必要的单独同意及境内代表或报送安排。

Mainland China Cross-Border Notice / 中国大陆用户跨境处理说明

9. Storage and retention / 存储与保留

Cloud-account learning data, personal vocabulary media and community records are stored in the Railway-hosted PostgreSQL database. The synced learner-state payload stored in PostgreSQL is additionally encrypted at the application layer. Guest-mode learning data is mainly stored in your browser, although a random pseudonymous browser identifier and limited first-party usage events may be stored in the Railway-hosted analytics database.

Our current automated retention rules are: verification resend-control records about 24 hours; expired sessions and consumed/expired authentication tokens until the next cleanup; guest analytics events 90 days; account-linked detailed analytics events 180 days; provider usage/cost detail 365 days; expired social challenge/invite data 30 days after invite expiry; and unverified accounts 30 days. Active-account learning data and private vocabulary media are normally retained while the account remains active, unless you delete them or delete the account.

When an account is deleted, account-linked learning, community, analytics and social records are deleted or disassociated as applicable. If paid services are introduced, transaction records that must be kept for tax, accounting, fraud or legal purposes may be retained in pseudonymised form after account deletion. Encrypted backup copies may persist for a limited backup-retention period before rotation. Provider security logs may also persist under provider retention cycles.

云端账户数据存储在 Railway 托管的 PostgreSQL 数据库中，主要学习状态在数据库中还会进行应用层加密。当前自动保留规则包括：访客分析数据90天、账户关联的详细分析数据180天、服务商使用量/成本记录365天、过期社交挑战数据在邀请过期30天后清理、未验证账户30天。删除账户后，与账户关联的学习、社区、分析及社交记录会按适用情况删除或解除关联；依法必须保留的付款或会计记录可能在去标识化后继续保存。

10. Your rights and controls / 你的权利与控制

You can export your account data and delete your account from Settings. The export is designed to include account and synced learning information plus account-linked analytics, vocabulary media, community activity, social challenge data, billing metadata (if any), and relevant security metadata; secret session/token hashes are excluded. You may also ask the Privacy Officer to confirm whether we hold personal information about you, request access or correction, or raise a privacy complaint. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

你可以在设置中导出数据和删除账户，也可以联系 Privacy Officer 请求查阅、更正或提出隐私投诉。

11. Security and privacy breaches / 安全与隐私事件

We use HTTPS, a non-public production database endpoint, restricted credentials, password hashing, hashed session/reset tokens, application-level encryption for synced learner-state payloads, encrypted database backups, access controls and provider security measures to reduce risk. No internet service can guarantee absolute security. If a privacy breach creates a risk of serious harm and notification is required by New Zealand law, we will notify affected people and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as required.

12. Complaints / 投诉

Please contact [email protected] first so we can try to resolve a privacy concern. You may also contact the New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

13. Changes to this policy / 政策更新

We may update this policy as the product, providers or legal requirements change. Material changes will be highlighted in the service or otherwise notified where appropriate. The date at the top shows the current version.

← Back to 英语指纹 / 返回英语指纹 · Terms / 使用条款