Back to Tarsier

Privacy policy

What Tarsier collects, what leaves your device, and how to delete it.

Effective date: October 20, 2026 · Covers Tarsier 1.4 and later on iPhone and iPad, and Tarsier 1.0 and later on Android

Tarsier ("we", "our", or "the app") is a Tagalog language learning app for iPhone, iPad and Android, built by Gathrean Dela Cruz. This policy explains what data the app handles, what leaves your device, and what you can do about it.

The short version. Tarsier works fully without an account, and your learning stays on your device. Creating an account is optional. It adds a public @handle, a leaderboard and a backup of your progress, and it means your email address, handle, XP and that backup are stored on our server. You can delete the account, and everything on the server with it, from inside the app.

1. Using Tarsier without an account

You can finish every lesson, keep a streak and build a word bank without signing in, and you always will be able to. Signed out, the following is stored on your device:

  • Lesson progress, quiz scores, streaks, and XP
  • Vocabulary word bank and practice history
  • Your @handle, display name, chosen avatar and profile colour
  • Onboarding answers such as skill level, motivations, daily goal, and optionally your age and country. Some of these also go to our analytics; see PostHog in section 5
  • App preferences (notifications, sound, haptics, dark mode)

Every install is given an @handle automatically, such as bluetarsier2967. Until you sign in, that handle exists only on your device and is not visible to anyone else.

2. Creating an account

Signing in is optional. It exists so you can claim a handle, appear on the leaderboard, and keep a Super subscription across your devices. You can sign in two ways:

  • Sign in with Apple (iPhone and iPad). Apple tells us an account identifier and an email address. If you choose Apple's Hide My Email option, we only ever receive the private relay address.
  • Email link. You enter an email address and we send a one-time sign-in link to it. There is no password.

Once you are signed in, the following is stored on our server:

  • Your account identifier and email address
  • Your @handle, display name and title
  • Your chosen avatar and profile colour
  • Your XP total, your XP for the current week, and which language course you are on
  • A backup of your progress: the lessons you finished, your streak and XP, your word bank and practice history, your badges, and the name, title, age range, country, daily goal and reasons you gave when setting up. It is saved at most once an hour while you are signed in, so you can restore it on another phone, including from an iPhone to Android and back

Your app preferences (notifications, sound, haptics, dark mode) are not uploaded to our server. On iPhone and iPad, your progress also backs up to your own iCloud, as described in section 4.

3. The leaderboard

The leaderboard is the only place where anything you write is shown to other people. If you are signed in, other signed-in learners can see your @handle, display name, title, avatar, profile colour and XP. Nothing else about you is shown, and there is no way for users to message, comment, post or send anything to one another.

Handles and display names are checked against a profanity filter when first claimed and on every rename. Every leaderboard row has a long-press "Report User" action which sends the report to us for manual review. If you would rather not appear at all, do not sign in, or delete your account (section 8), which removes your leaderboard entry.

4. iCloud backup (iPhone and iPad)

Tarsier automatically backs your progress up to your own iCloud account, free on every plan. This uses Apple's iCloud key-value storage and is tied to the Apple Account signed into your iPhone, not to a Tarsier account. The backup holds your streak, XP, finished lessons, word bank and preferences.

This data sits in your personal iCloud storage under Apple's privacy policy. We cannot read it. You can back up on demand, see when it last ran, or restore it from Settings, Account and Subscriptions. Turning off iCloud Drive for Tarsier in iOS Settings stops it.

5. Third-party services

  • Supabase (accounts, progress backup, leaderboard and tester sign-ups): hosts the authentication, the profile and leaderboard data and the progress backup listed in section 2, and the Android tester sign-ups in section 5c. supabase.com/privacy
  • ElevenLabs (speech to text): when a Super member taps the mic on a speaking card, the recording of that one line (8 seconds at most) passes through our server to ElevenLabs, which turns it into text so the app can check which words came through. We do not keep the recording, and our server asks ElevenLabs to delete it as soon as the text comes back; ElevenLabs says deleted items can stay in its backups for up to 30 days. Our ElevenLabs account does not let ElevenLabs use these recordings to improve its models. Speaking cards are never shown to learners under 13. elevenlabs.io/privacy-policy
  • Resend (email delivery): delivers the one-time sign-in link. Your email address passes through Resend to reach you. resend.com/legal/privacy-policy
  • Discord (tester sign-ups): when you sign up to test on Android, a message with your email address, and your first name and phone model if you gave them, goes to a private Discord channel that only Gathrean reads. discord.com/privacy
  • Apple iCloud (backup): stores the progress backup described in section 4 in your own iCloud. apple.com/legal/privacy
  • PostHog (analytics): in the app, usage events such as lessons started, lessons completed and feature engagement, tied to a random app-generated identifier. Unless you told the app you are under 13, the name you type into the app and your answers to the setup questions (such as your age range, country, Tagalog background, goals and how you heard about Tarsier) are sent with them. Never your email. On this website, page views only, and only if you accept the cookie banner. posthog.com/privacy
  • Google Play (updates, Android): to check whether a newer version of Tarsier is out, the app uses Google Play's in-app updates, which send Google your device's details, the app's version and its installed modules. policies.google.com/privacy
  • RevenueCat (subscriptions): processes your Super subscription status through Apple's App Store or Google Play. We never see your payment details. revenuecat.com/privacy
  • Superwall (paywalls): decides which subscription screen to show and records that it was shown. superwall.com/privacy
  • Google AdMob (advertising): if you are on the free plan, AdMob shows ads and may collect device identifiers for ad personalisation: the IDFA on iPhone and iPad, subject to your App Tracking Transparency choice, and the advertising ID on Android. AdMob may also estimate a rough location from your IP address to choose ads. On Android in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google's consent form asks you first, and you can change your answer in Settings, Privacy Choices. policies.google.com/privacy
  • Google Forms (Android waitlist): stores the email address you leave on this website's Android waitlist, in Gathrean's Google account (section 5d). policies.google.com/privacy

5b. Cookies on this website

This website loads no analytics and sets no analytics cookie until you press Accept on the banner. If you decline, nothing is loaded and we remember only your choice, stored in your own browser so we do not ask again. If you accept, PostHog records page views to show which parts of the site people find useful. It does not identify you by name or email.

To change your mind, clear this site's data in your browser and the banner will ask again.

Lesson audio and artwork are generated ahead of time and bundled into the app. The one thing a lesson sends anywhere for processing is a speaking card's recording, described under ElevenLabs in section 5.

5c. Testing Tarsier on Android

If you sign up on the Android test page, we store the email address of your Google account, your first name and phone model if you give them, when you signed up, and which link brought you there (for example, one shared on Discord). We keep them on our server at Supabase and use them only to run the test: knowing who is testing and asking how it went.

To get into the test, you join the testers' Google Group with your Google account, because Google lets only listed accounts into a closed test. Google shares the email of each member with us as the group's owner, and only we can see who is in the group. A message with your sign-up also goes to a private Discord channel that only Gathrean reads. Other testers never see your email, and it never goes on the Android waitlist or any mailing list.

We delete your sign-up within 30 days of Tarsier opening to everyone on Google Play, or sooner if you email support@tarsierlearn.com. Leaving the test or the group does not delete your sign-up from our list.

5d. The Android waitlist

If you join the Android waitlist on the home page, your email address and the time you sent it go to a Google Form in Gathrean's Google account. The form asks for nothing else.

We use your address to email you when Tarsier opens to everyone on Google Play. Before then, we may email you once to ask if you want to help test it. We don't add it to a newsletter or share it with anyone else.

We delete the list within 30 days of Tarsier opening to everyone on Google Play. To come off it sooner, email support@tarsierlearn.com and we will delete your address.

6. Data we do not collect

  • We do not collect your phone number
  • We do not read your device's location. If you choose to set a country on your profile, you type it in yourself. AdMob may estimate a rough location from your IP address (section 5)
  • We do not accept photo, file or free-text uploads, and there is no chat or messaging
  • We do not sell your personal data, or share it with third parties for their own marketing
  • Unless you sign in, or type your email into a form on this website, we never learn it

7. Children's privacy

Tarsier is for learners of all ages, including children. When you set up the app, it asks for your birth month and year. For a learner under 13:

  • No name or setup answers are sent to our analytics, only the anonymous usage events described in section 5
  • Ads are child-directed, non-personalised and rated for a general audience. App Tracking Transparency is never asked on iPhone and iPad, and on Android the advertising ID is not sent
  • The birth date cannot be changed to an older year

On Android, a learner who skips the age question gets the same ads as a child. If you believe a child has created an account, or you want a child's data deleted, email us at support@tarsierlearn.com and we will delete it.

8. Deleting your data

  • Delete your account. Settings, Account, Delete Account. This removes your account, email address, @handle, leaderboard entry and progress backup from our server, and erases your progress on the device.
  • Erase local data only. On iPhone and iPad, "Reset All Data" in Settings clears everything the app stores on your device. On Android, uninstall the app, or clear its storage in your phone's Settings, Apps, Tarsier, Storage.
  • Delete the iCloud backup. Turn Tarsier off under iCloud in your iPhone's Settings, or delete the app's iCloud data from your Apple Account.
  • Leave the Android test. Leave the test from its opt-in link in Google Play and the testers' Google Group from its page, and email us to delete your sign-up (section 5c).
  • Opt out of analytics. Email us and we will exclude your identifier from PostHog.
  • Opt out of ad tracking. On iPhone and iPad, decline the App Tracking Transparency prompt, or use Settings, Privacy and Security, Tracking. On Android, delete or reset your advertising ID in your phone's privacy settings (the menu name varies by phone), and in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, change your choice in Tarsier's Settings, Privacy Choices.
  • Leave the Android waitlist. Email us and we will delete your address from it (section 5d).

You can also email support@tarsierlearn.com to ask what we hold about you, or to have it corrected or deleted. The steps, and what gets deleted, are on Delete your data.

9. Ad tracking choices

On iPhone and iPad, Tarsier respects your App Tracking Transparency choice. If you decline, AdMob serves non-personalised ads and no IDFA is collected. On Android, a learner under 13, or one who skipped the age question, gets non-personalised ads without the advertising ID, and adults in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent first through Google's form.

10. Data retention

Data on your device stays until you delete the app, use "Reset All Data" (iPhone and iPad), or clear the app's storage (Android). Account, leaderboard and progress backup data on our server is kept while your account exists and is removed when you delete it. Android tester sign-ups are deleted within 30 days of Tarsier opening to everyone on Google Play, or sooner if you ask. Android waitlist addresses are deleted within 30 days of Tarsier opening to everyone on Google Play, or sooner if you ask. Anonymous analytics are retained by PostHog under their own retention policy.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Changes are posted on this page with a new effective date. Continued use of the app after a change means you accept it.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy: support@tarsierlearn.com

Found a security problem in the app or this site? Tell us at the same address, and we will reply before we say anything about it publicly.