Privacy

Boodo is used in two ways

At home. A parent downloads Boodo and creates a profile for their child. There is no account and no sign-in. The profile, the reading progress and any profile picture stay on the device.

With a school. A school connects a tablet to one child by giving an adult a short code to type in once. From then on that tablet reports that child's reading to their school, and can receive messages from their teacher. A school connection is optional, is off unless a grown-up turns it on, and can be removed at any time.

What we never collect

• No recordings of your child. When a child reads aloud, the words are recognised and compared with the story, and the audio is discarded immediately. Boodo never stores or uploads a recording.
• No advertising identifier, and no tracking of anyone across apps or websites.
• No third-party analytics or advertising software of any kind.
• No location, contacts, health or financial information.

Speech recognition

Reading aloud uses the speech recognition built into the device. Where the device has an offline language pack installed, recognition happens entirely on the device. Where it does not — which is common on a new device — the audio is processed by Apple or Google under their own privacy policies, in order to return the text.

We would rather say that a child's voice never leaves the device, and on many devices it does not. But it is not true of every device, so we do not say it. Either way, Boodo receives only text and keeps no audio.

What leaves the device

Stories come down; almost nothing goes up. Boodo downloads stories and illustrations so the app works with no internet at all. Fetching them tells our server nothing about who is reading.

Crash reports. If the app stops working, it sends a technical report to our own servers so we can fix it — no third party is involved. These describe what the software was doing, not what the child was reading, though a report can occasionally include a name that was on screen. They are deleted after 90 days.

Notifications. If notifications are turned on, the device is registered with a random identifier created for that installation. It carries no name, no email and no school.

Reading records — only with a school. A connected tablet sends which story was read, in which mode, for how long, and how many words were matched, to the school that connected it. Nothing is sent to a school from an unconnected device.

Who can see a child's reading

Where a school is connected, their staff can, and a parent the school has linked to that child can. Schools decide who holds those roles. Boodo does not sell data, and does not share it with anyone for advertising.

Deleting data

At home, deleting a profile or removing the app deletes the child's reading history, because it was only ever on that device. Where a school is connected, ask the school — they can erase a child's record, and the erasure is permanent.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or a request about your child's data: privacy@boodo.co